THREATENED Species Day is September 7 in Australia, marking the day the last Tasmanian Tiger died.

The Federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water lists 488 native species as threatened under Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999.

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After the catastrophic bushfires in 2019-20, with nearly three billion animals impacted, many of these species are being pushed further towards extinction.

On Threatened Species Day, approximately 20 protestors gathered outside the offices of the Member for Coffs Harbour, Gurmesh Singh, to protest the logging of what they say is native animal habitat in state forests.

There were simultaneous protests in Port Macquarie and Tweed Heads.

City of Coffs Harbour Councillor Sally Townley told News Of The Area, “It’s a cruel irony that we see extinctions accelerate on Threatened Species Day.

“The government’s own experts have recommended that we protect the last remnants of unburnt forest.

“But it is also ironic that the taxpayer is footing the bill for this uneconomic industry and we are watching vulnerable species being flushed down the drain.”

Bellingen Shire Councillor Dominic King told the protestors that we cannot continue to do what we have done in the past.

He said we must protect the biodiversity in our forests, which belong to the public, not politicians.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released a report last Wednesday about biodiversity loss which graded Australia as ‘F’, the lowest grade.

While Cowper was graded ‘A’ for species protection, it was graded ‘F’ for recovery plans and improvement and ‘E’ for Federal funding.

The overall grade is an indication of how well the threatened plants and animals in an area are doing in terms of their protection, funding, planning, and threat status trajectory, and Cowper was ranked nineteenth worst out of the 151 Federal lower house electorates.

While there has been considerable publicity about the threats of habitat loss to koalas and gliders, which are ‘threatened’, the spotted-tail quoll, which can live in most habitats in Cowper, is listed as endangered.

The results of the WWF report can be viewed at www.wwf.org.au/get-involved/my-backyard/.

By Andrew VIVIAN