Since the publication of the article ‘Koalas, Climate, Conservation, and the Community: A Case Study of the Proposed Great Koala National Park, New South Wales, Australia’ in June 2023, the Government of New South Wales has continued to permit logging operations within the footprint of the proposed park on the state's Mid North Coast. Conflicts between forest industry advocates and the community epitomise tensions around the socioeconomic and sociocultural dimensions of society.
At the time of writing, forestry operations have impacted over 7,000ha of koala habitat in the park footprint, with claims being made that the intensity of logging is potentially four times greater than the rest of northern NSW (Vivian 2024). New research, published since the appearance of the article, reveals that since European settlement over sixty per cent of the forests of NSW have been destroyed or degraded by land-clearing and logging, heavily impacting arboreal mammals, including the koala (Ward, Ashman et al. 2024).
Local communities have subsequently collaborated with the authors of the article to prepare a World Heritage proposal for a Greater Koala Park, which was launched at a series of events in June 2024 (Vivian 2024). The 492,000 ha area encompasses the Government's proposed Greater Koala National Park, and includes existing World Heritage Areas and National Parks and is the first stage in a series of reserves for the floristic communities of the Eucalyptus species across its naturally occurring range in Australia and beyond (Cadman 2024).
The World Heritage Area (WHA) proposal encompasses all plantations within the State Forests, as these are known to contain koala populations, and in many instances are plantations in name only (Cadman, Schlagloth et al. 2023), being areas of natural forest rezoned as plantations for wood production purposes (Cadman, Macdonald et al. 2024). These areas have been excluded from the Government's park, a highly problematic decision, as this will create what has been termed the ‘Swiss cheese effect’ (Ferrier 2024), i.e. a series of logging zones inside the park, threatening the viability of the koala, an endangered species (Cadman and Clode 2023).
In August 2024 the Federal Government responded to the submission of the World Heritage proposal, noting that ‘the inclusion of a place on the National Heritage List can be a useful step towards a potential World Heritage nomination’ (Cadman 2024). The State Government has yet to respond.
In a related development, an Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) of 85,000 ha for the Bellinger Valley, which sits within the WHA proposal, was announced in July (Vivian 2024). This is an important recognition of the aspirations of Budaabang Clan of the Gumybanggirr Nation, and a positive step along the path to World Heritage status.
The boundaries of the Great Koala National Park are expected to be released before the end of December, 2024.
Great Koala National Park. OpenMapTiles, Open Street Map and contributors, Commons, public domain (Cadman and Clode 2023). Light green indicates existing national parks; dark green, state forests; red, koala hubs; yellow, plantations.
Citation: The International Journal of Social Quality 13, 2; 10.3167/IJSQ.2023.130206
Map of proposed reserve, showing existing protected areas (light yellow), Friends reserves (red boundaries), and conservation values within state forests. The areas of black represent high conservation value forests (including old growth and rainforest), logged since 1998. Source: NSW government data.
Citation: The International Journal of Social Quality 13, 2; 10.3167/IJSQ.2023.130206
References
Cadman, T., Ed. (2024). Greater Koala Park World Heritgage Proposal: Australian Eucalyptus Sequence World Heritage Area—Stage One.
Cadman, T. (2024). “Response from the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, on behalf of the Minister, Tanya Plibersek to the Greater Koala Park Proposal.” https://timcadman.wordpress.com/2024/11/12/response-from-the-australian-governmentdepartment-of-climate-change-energy-the-environment-and-water-on-behalf-of-the-minister-tanya-plibersek-to-the-greater-koala-park-proposal/. Accessed 12/11/24.
Cadman, T. and D. Clode (2023). “A Home among the Gum Trees: Will the Great Koala National Park Actually Save Koalas?” The Conversation 3.
Cadman, T., K. Macdonald, E. Morgan, S. Cadman, S. Karki, M. Dell, G. Barber and U. Koju (2024). “Forest conversion and timber certification in the public plantation estate of NSW: Implications at the landscape and policy levels.” Land Use Policy 143: 107179.
Cadman, T., R. Schlagloth, F. Santamaria, E. Morgan, D. Clode and S. Cadman (2023). “Koalas, Climate, Conservation, and the Community: A Case Study of the Proposed Great Koala National Park, New South Wales, Australia.” The International Journal of Social Quality 13(1): 25–55. https://doi.org/10.3167/IJSQ.2023.130104.
Ferrier, T. (2024). “Researcher warns of killing zones inside new koala park.” https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/8564400/researcher-warns-of-killing-zones-inside-new-koala-park/. Accessed 12/11/24.
Vivian, A. (2024). “Indigenous Protected Area Announced In Bellinger Valley.” https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/indigenous-protected-area-announced-in-bellinger-valley. Accessed 12/11/24.
Vivian, A. (2024). “Wilderness Australia Report Outlines Risks From Logging To Great Koala National Park.” News of the Area https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/wilderness-australia-report-outlines-risks-from-logging-to-great-koala-national-park. Accessed 12/11/24.
Vivian, A. (2024). “World Heritage Proposal For Koala Park Conservation.” News of the Area https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/world-heritage-proposal-for-koala-park-conservation. Accessed 12/11/24.
Ward, M., K. Ashman, D. B. Lindenmayer, S. Legge, G. Kindler, T. Cadman, R. Fletcher, N. Whiterod, M. Lintermans and P. Zylstra (2024). “Shifting baselines clarify the impact of contemporary logging on forest-dependent threatened species.” Conservation Science and Practice 6(9): e13185.
