Unchecked development ‘will make koalas extinct’
Koalas face extinction if the six million residents projected to call South East Queensland home by 2046 are all housed in new detached housing estates.
Queensland Conservation Council has sounded the alarm that the future of our threatened species will be determined by how we build new homes.
Dave Copeman, Queensland Conservation Council Director said:
"We have to be smart about new housing - we can't clear any more of Southeast Queensland's native forests. The latest land clearing report released yesterday shows that 24,720 hectares were cleared in 2021 in Southeast Queensland.
The Queensland Government’s own biodiversity mapping indicates that 97% of SEQ's remnant forests have significant environmental values that must be protected.
"People move to Southeast Queensland for the quality of life including the chance to live among the beautiful biodiversity, but without better planning laws, we risk loving it to death.
"If we keep approving new massive greenfields suburbs, it will be a death sentence for the Koala, which is already listed as endangered. This means it has a real risk of extinction.
"Without better planning that allows gentle density in the existing urban footprint, we will destroy the future of our koalas, the powerful owls and many of the other endangered local species.
"We need more well planned medium density housing to create the extra homes in each of the Local Government areas, not new housing estates.
"Clearing any more forests or wetlands in biodiversity hotspots like the Sunshine Coast would be madness. We have to make better use of existing developed land for the proposed 206,000 extra residents."