Great Koala National Park: economic impact analysis and environmental benefit assessment: final report

The koala is one of the iconic, national symbols of Australia but is currently listed as a vulnerable species and populations of koalas are in decline across the country. The major issues for koalas are clearing, fragmentation and degradation of habitat, disease, natural disasters, roads, dogs and over-browsing. The 2020 NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Koala populations and habitat in New South Wales found that koalas will become extinct in NSW before 2050 without urgent government intervention. Critically, this assessment was based on evidence presented to the Inquiry, before the bushfires in the summer of 2019/2020. Whilst understanding about koalas and their habitat increases, the policy base no longer supports their survival and is deeply politicised at the national, state and local levels. What is clear is that their habitat, which also supports many other species of flora and fauna, needs to be preserved, regenerated and protected in order for the koala to have a chance at survival in the wild. This cannot happen at a local, piecemeal level. It requires ambitious planning at a large, landscape scale in order to provide long term positive outcomes for koala populations and their habitat. The Great Koala National Park (GKNP) was first conceived in 2015 as a direct response to a loss of valuable habitat in the Mid North Coast of NSW. It aims to be Australia’s first large national park dedicated to protecting a significant, but vulnerable, koala habitat. The area of the proposed GKNP already contains two nationally recognised koala metapopulations and areas of World Heritage listed rainforest. The proposal is to transition 175,000 hectares of state forest to existing national parks to create a more contiguous national park of 315,000 hectares. The assessment was jointly commissioned by Bellingen Shire Council, Coffs Harbour City Council and Destination North Coast. The findings provide an evidence base which highlights several key channels of potential value which may warrant further evaluation and consideration.