Add Category
Environment groups say a review of missing animal rescue data has found significant koala records were not considered when major housing develops were approved south-west of Sydney.
The concern has been raised as the Sydney Basin Koala Network and the Total Environment Centre release a new report showing koala numbers are declining.
It comes after the groups last year drew attention to missing records from the New South Wales species tracking database BioNet.
Sydney Basin Koala Network manager Stephanie Carrick said the government had since uploaded 480,000 records from 2019-2022, including about 25,000 threatened species records.
She said the koala network and the environment centre compared the new records with the time frame of major housing development applications at Gilead in the Campbeltown area and Appin in the Wollondilly area.
"And we found that in Wollondilly 40 per cent of koala records were missing from that time, and in Campbelltown it was 44 per cent when Gilead was assessed," she said.
In July last year the Labor state government approved the development of 13,000 homes in Appin.
About 5,000 homes are planned for Gilead.
"We are really concerned that not only did they not realise the scale of how many koalas were there but also that those numbers have been used to calculate really important things and they're wrong," Ms Carrick said.
Wollondilly Council has raised repeated questions about the fast-tracked planning approval for Appin.
Mayor Matt Gould said it was an additional problem if the approvals were informed by incomplete data.
"This is an absolutely huge concern if the data wasn't there when they were considering the impact on the koalas prior to approving the development," Cr Gould said.
"This is not a small issue, and the community deserves to know how these were missed."
He said the approvals should be reviewed.
The koala network, the environment centre and the Environmental Defenders Office have also released a new report showing the Sydney Basin koala population is declining.
The research was conducted by Biolink's ecological consultants.
The Sydney Basin includes key populations including in the Southern Highlands, Hawkesbury, Cessnock/Lake Macquarie, Port Stephens, Campbelltown/Wollondilly, the Sutherland Shire and Liverpool.
It found the geographic extent of koalas had remained relatively stable from 2021-2023, though with a 0.75 per cent overall trend towards decline.
It said that represented a decrease of 35,857 hectares.
It also showed a small decline in the area of occupancy from 12.81 per cent in 2021 to 12.55 per cent in 2023.
The report identified an overall decrease in long-standing breeding populations between 2021 and 2023.
It said some of the results may have been impacted by delays in entering koala sightings records into government databases.
Ms Carrick said the report made a series of recommendations including a call for funding from the NSW Koala Strategy to help councils develop Comprehensive Koala Plans of Management.
She said it also suggested reforms of land clearing policy and the Cumberland Plains Conservation Plan, which was used to as a framework to allow developers to continue building on Sydney's fringe while ensuring the protection of the environment.
Environment Minister Penny Sharpe told a budget estimate hearing last week the release of her review of the Cumberland Plains Conservation Plan was "imminent".
A spokesperson for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said it had been asked to "review the Cumberland Plain Conservation Plan (CPCP) to strengthen the protection for koalas, wildlife and threatened plants, while still delivering much needed housing".
The NSW government will host a Koala Summit at Taronga Zoo next week.
Get our local newsletter, delivered free each Thursday