QLD:Pockets set aside to help koalas survive

AAP General News (Australia)
04-06-2011
QLD:Pockets set aside to help koalas survive

EDS: Reissues to clarifies last par (to read that the total land protected is 100 hectares)

BRISBANE, April 6 AAP - Six koala refuges will be set aside in southeast Queensland
in an effort to boost the marsupial's dwindling population.

Queensland Environment Minister Kate Jones said the state government had partnered
with private landholders to protect the 32 hectares.

The landowners would be given $174,000 to plant new koala food trees, remove weeds
and barbed wire fences and install koala friendly fencing, she said.

"These properties on private land will be voluntarily gazetted as nature refuges with
landholders receiving funding to rehabilitate the area," Ms Jones said in a statement
on Wednesday.

The Australian Koala Foundation believes there are as few as 45,000 koalas left.

The group says the iconic animal is struggling to survive due to loss of habitat in
fast-growing regions like southeast Queensland.

The six new koala nature refuges announced today bring the total amount of land protected
for koalas under these kinds of special arrangements with private landholders to 100 hectares.

AAP gd/crh/dep/stg/cdh

KEYWORD: KOALAS (REISSUING)

� 2011 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.