BONGIL Bongil and Bindarri National Parks are amongst the more than two hundred sites that have been named as Assets of Intergenerational Significance (AIS) to help protect koalas and other endangered animals.

The NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean used Threatened Species Day, Tuesday 7 September, to announce protections for endangered native species in national parks.

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In the wake of the bushfires, the government altered the National Parks and Wildlife Act of 1974 to allow the Minister to designate an area of exceptional natural or cultural value that warrants special protection, including dedicated management measures as an AIS.

To be considered as an AIS, a site must contain critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable species and/or be an important area for breeding, feeding or shelter.

Sites where locally extinct mammal species are being reintroduced can also be an AIS.

When a site becomes an AIS, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) must prepare and implement a concise conservation action plan (CAP) which sets out the risks and actions to reduce risks to the habitat of the threatened species.

The NPWS must also take action to measure and report on the health/population of the threatened species.

While the news has been widely applauded, not everyone is 100% happy.

Ann Coyle, a local conservationist and koala carer, who has been fighting to conserve local forests since the 1990’s, told News Of The Area, “It’s great start, but if they actually want to ensure the long term survival of koalas they need to set aside much larger areas.

“They could begin by joining Bindarri and Bongil Bongil – it’s recognised as an ecological gradient, which means that it’s one of the few areas where the tablelands are still connected to the coast and allows movement of native animals.

“We already have wildlife corridors and we shouldn’t lose them,” she said.

Ms Coyle said that historically, koala habitat has been getting smaller and more disconnected, resulting in the animals becoming isolated and dying out.

She said, “Despite huge efforts in some places, the land area has not been enough for sustainable populations of koalas, because they are isolated.

Ms Coyle pointed out that the two compartments mentioned in previous articles about logging (and, which have had the logging dates moved back two years) were on the original proposal for a Pine Creek National Park in 1998, so they have always been contested.

She said that parts of Pine Creek State Forest were added to the Bongil Bongil National Park in 2003 but, in her opinion, the compartments in dispute were omitted during trade-offs to increase the size of other parks.

Connecting Bongil Bongil and Bindarri National Parks by land, which includes the contentious parts of the State Forest, will enable animals to move from the coast to the tablelands and back as they used to, according to Ms Coyle.

She said, “We are yet to come to grips with what koalas really need, and koalas and logging do not mix.

“Koalas are tough animals, but most of their issues are caused by stress from disturbances, so that there is no doubt that, with the logging proposed generally for this area, outcomes for koalas will be very poor.”

By Andrew VIVIAN