コアラを「絶滅危惧種」指定　豪東部

【シドニーＡＦＰ＝時事】オーストラリアは１１日、東岸一帯に生息するコアラを「絶滅危惧種」に指定した。コアラは森林火災や開発による生息地の減少、干ばつ、病気などの影響を受けている。（写真はコアラ）
　対象となるのは、ニューサウスウェールズ州、首都特別地域、クイーンズランド州のコアラ。スーザン・リー環境相は、高いレベルの保護を可能にするためと説明している。
　東岸部のコアラは約１０年前に「危急種」に指定された。
　世界自然保護基金（ＷＷＦ）のオーストラリア支部に所属する専門家、スチュアート・ブランチ氏は「コアラは１０年もたたないうちに、指定なしから危急種、危惧種になった。衝撃的な速さで生息数が減少している」と指摘する。
　「今回の決定は歓迎するが、生息地の森を守るため、法を強化し土地所有者への補償を行わなければ、コアラが絶滅に向かうことは止められない」と語った。
　自然保護団体などは、東岸に生息するコアラの正確な数を把握するのは難しいとしている。
　政府の絶滅危惧種科学委員会は、２００１年には１８万５０００匹いたが、２１年には９万２０００匹にまで減少したと推計している。
　動物保護団体「ヒューメイン・ソサエティー・インターナショナル」のアレクシア・ウェルビラブ氏は、何も対策が講じられなければ、５０年までに東岸部のコアラは絶滅する恐れがあると指摘する。
　自然保護団体「オーストラリア自然保護基金」の調査から、コアラが危急種に指定されて以降も、生息地の土地２万５０００ヘクタール以上の開拓を政府が許可したことが分かっている。
　同団体の啓発担当、バシャ・スタサク氏は「環境関連の連邦法はまったく効果がなく、１０年前に危急種に指定したが、クイーンズランド、ニューサウスウェールズ両州の生息地の破壊を止めることはほとんどできなかった」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/02/14-11:55）

Australia officially listed koalas across a swathe of its eastern coast as endangered on Friday, with the marsupials fighting to survive the impact of bushfires, land-clearing, drought and disease.
Conservationists said koala populations had crashed in much of eastern Australia over the past two decades, warning that they were now sliding towards extinction.
Environment Minister Sussan Ley said she had designated koala populations as endangered to offer them a higher level of protection in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland.
The koala, a globally recognised symbol of Australia's unique wildlife, had been listed as vulnerable on the eastern coast just a decade earlier.
We are taking unprecedented action to protect the koala, the minister said, highlighting a recent government promise of Aus$50 million (US$36 million) to protect and recover koala habitats.
Environmentalists welcomed the koalas' new status but condemned Australia's failure to protect the species so far.
Koalas have gone from no-listing to vulnerable to endangered within a decade. That is a shockingly fast decline, said WWF-Australia conservation scientist Stuart Blanch.
Today's decision is welcome but it won't stop koalas from sliding towards extinction unless it's accompanied by stronger laws and landholder incentives to protect their forest homes.
Conservationists said it was hard to give precise figures on koala populations in the affected eastern states.
But estimates by an independent government advisory body -- the Threatened Species Scientific Committee -- indicated that koala numbers had slumped from 185,000 in 2001 to just 92,000 in 2021.
- 'Losing a national icon' -
Alexia Wellbelove of the Humane Society International said east coast koalas could be extinct by 2050 if no action was taken.
We can't afford any more clearing, she said.
The Australian Conservation Foundation said its own research showed that the federal government had approved the clearing of more than 25,000 hectares of koala habitat since the species was declared vulnerable a decade ago.
Australia?s national environment laws are so ineffective they have done little to stem the ongoing destruction of koala habitat in Queensland and NSW since the species was supposedly protected a decade ago, said the foundation's nature campaign manager, Basha Stasak.
The extinction of koalas does not have to happen, Stasak added.
We must stop allowing their homes to be bulldozed for mines, new housing estates, agricultural projects and industrial logging.
Australia's koalas had been living on a knife edge even before the devastating Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020 because of land-clearing, drought, disease, car strikes and dog attacks, said Josey Sharrad, wildlife campaign manager at the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
We should never have allowed things to get to the point where we are at risk of losing a national icon, Sharrad said.
The bushfires were the final straw. This must be a wake-up call to Australia and the government to move much faster to protect critical habitat from development and land-clearing and seriously address the impacts of climate change.