Tree clearing, not urban sprawl, wiping out koalas in Queensland, WWF says

Environmentalists estimate that tree clearing in regional and rural Queensland is now 15 times more destructive to the state’s koala populations than urban sprawl.

The clearing of agricultural land in Queensland is putting
koalas under threat, say environmentalists. 

Development, and the loss of koala habitat for housing and infrastructure, was considered a key reason why the koala was added to the “vulnerable” species list in 2012.

But analysis by WWF conservation scientist Martin Taylor challenges the idea that the state’s koala populations are most at threat by the growth of Brisbane, the Gold Coast and sunshine coast.

Taylor concludes that of more than 5,000 estimated koala deaths due to loss of habitat in Queensland from 2012 to 2016, almost 94% occurred outside the heavily developed south-east.

Read the story by Ben Smee from The Guardian - “Tree clearing, not urban sprawl, wiping out koalas in Queensland, WWF says.”