Off the wire
• Exhibition at UN headquarters shows beauty of China's Xinjiang  • China supports EU in playing constructive role in UN affairs  • Strong quake rattles New Zealand's South Island  • Brazil's Temer decides to keep cabinet members alleged of corruption  • 20 weightlifters positive or presumed in doping retests, says IWF  • 2nd LD Writethru: Hillary Clinton gets enough delegates to notch U.S. Democratic nomination  • Roundup: Norwegian media urged to play bigger role in promoting child welfare  • Australians inadequately insured against natural disaster: report  • Four dead, three missing in eastern Australia storms  • Venezuela blasts "U.S. re-colonization plan" in Latin America  
You are here: 　 Home

Australian state gov't earmarks 8.9 mln USD for koala protection

Xinhua, June 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

Australia's Queensland state government has earmarked 12 million Australian dollars (8.91 million U.S. dollars) in its next state budget to help save its dwindling koala population.

"Koala numbers in south east Queensland are showing no signs of stabilizing despite considerable efforts to address their decline over the past 20 years," the state's environment minister Steven Miles said in a statement on Tuesday.

Koalas in parts of the state have been labelled "effectively extinct," according to a report from the University of Queensland, while numbers in New South Wales state have fallen almost 30 percent since 1990 to list the endemic bears as vulnerable.

Koala populations have been under pressure from habitat destruction associated with human development, however researchers are warning they are also susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases which are spreading rapidly due to closer interaction.

It's estimated Australia's koala populations have fallen to around 333,000 in 2012 from 10 million koalas before British settlement in 1788. Endit