The comments were in response to a segment on the ABC’s Four Corners program on Monday night highlighting the plight of koalas due to logging, mining and development.

Logging in Tanja State Forest was put on hold earlier this month after evidence of a resident koala population was found (BDN, 3/8).

Local anti-logging activist Harriett Swift said ABC researchers had spent a lot of time in the Tanja area and if it weren’t for the halt to logging, Tanja’s koalas would have been included in the Four Corners segment.

“The reason we think they dropped it is we couldn’t offer enough vision of logging activity or koalas,” Ms Swift said.

Instead the television segment focused mainly on the impact of development on koala populations in Queensland and northern NSW, as well as the genetic implications of the declining koala population in Victoria.

“The big threat to koalas in Queensland is the planning laws, to an extent in Northern NSW as well,” Ms Swift said.

“Here it’s all about state forests and logging, but the federal law is the problem.”

Ms Swift referred to the Federal Government’s listing of koalas as a “vulnerable species”, but where subsequent protections exclude areas subject to Regional Forestry Agreements.

“Their reasoning is that forestry agreement provisions are adequate [for the protection of koalas],” she said.

“We’d argue that’s not the case.”

Greens Senator for NSW Lee Rhiannon also put the onus on the Federal Government to step up protection for the state’s koala population. 

 “To save koala populations in NSW, the Federal Government must give teeth to its recent ‘vulnerable species’ listing by closing loopholes that ignore at-risk koalas in state forests and backing up the listing with proper monitoring and enforcement,” Senator Rhiannon said. 

“Many koalas in NSW state forests continue to be at risk because the Federal Government’s listing has no effect in areas logged by Forests NSW under Regional Forestry Agreements (RFAs). 

“This is like declaring protection for southern bluefin tuna, except for those tuna that swim near the Margiris super trawler. 

“In the last two months, Forests NSW has been under fire for risking koala habitat in Pine Creek State Forest on the NSW Mid-North Coast and Tanja State Forest in NSW South-East. 

“It should be an offence to harm or destroy koala habitat in areas where koalas have been listed as threatened. 

“I will continue to work…to ensure the threatened species listing is more than just words on paper,” Senator Rhiannon said.