Koala listed as endangered after Australian governments fail to halt its decline

The Australian government has officially listed the koala as endangered after a decline in its numbers due to land clearing and catastrophic bushfires shrinking its habitat.

The environment minister, Sussan Ley, accepted the recommendation of the threatened species scientific committee that the koala populations of Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory should have their conservation status upgraded.

Ley said in addition to the endangered listing, the government planned to adopt a long-awaited national recovery plan for the koala.

The endangered listing will provide additional protection for koalas because it lowers the threshold at which a development must be assessed under national laws for potentially significant impacts on the species.

The recovery plan sets out the key threats to the koala and actions needed to prevent its extinction.

It took the black summer bushfire disaster to prompt consultation on a draft, with a final version delivered to the minister late last year.

Once a recovery plan is adopted, ministers are legally bound not to make decisions that are inconsistent with it, however governments have no obligation to actually implement the plan.

The koala is under pressure from multiple ongoing threats including disease, global heating and clearing of its habitat for development.

In 2020, a NSW parliamentary inquiry found the species would be extinct in that state by 2050 unless governments took urgent action to protect its habitat and turn the declines around.

Wellbelove said the decision needed to be followed by action on the review of national environmental laws by the former competition watchdog head, Graeme Samuel.