Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00555:body:0:p41
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00555
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Character Range: 137563–140730

six years to the conservation of the listed Koala. This includes $12 million to establish and implement a National Koala Monitoring Program (including Victoria and South Australia) (section 9), which will build on and complement existing monitoring led by state and territory governments and other organisations. Another $8.3 million is to support the Koala Health Initiative, genetics research, care and treatment, and $47 million for habitat restoration projects.
The Koala Health Initiative includes wildlife treatment and care training for vets and vet nurses, a national-level Koala disease risk assessment and a suite of practical and applied Koala health research projects. In partnership with the NSW and Australian Governments, Taronga Conservation Society Australia is delivering training for vets and vet nurses in wildlife treatment and care, with a specific module focused on Koala care. The Koala disease risk assessment and research projects are being delivered by the Koala Health Hub at the University of Sydney.
The Koala disease risk assessment will identify diseases at a national level that require intervention, effective mitigation strategies and priority research gaps. Additional applied research projects include: investigating the significance of key pathogen and host traits; developing testing for key pathogen and host traits (including Chlamydia pecorum, Koala retrovirus (KoRV) and Koala herpesvirus); determining the spatial distribution of Koala diseases; investigating the distribution and treatment of sarcoptic mange (caused by the mite Sarcoptes scabiei); developing scat-based methods to support Koala health monitoring; and preventing captive transmission of C. pecorum.
In addition, in partnership with the NSW Government, the Australian Government is funding the genomic sequencing of Koalas from across its range, delivered by the University of Sydney. This project will analyse functional genes including those for heat shock, taste receptors and disease resilience. Information from this project will inform conservation management actions such as translocation to improve or augment population resilience from infectious diseases (section 19.4), physiological resilience from heatwaves and drought (section 29), maintain or improve gene flow and metapopulation processes (section 20.3) and improve our understanding of the variation in fine-scale habitat preferences by Koalas (section 28) and population structure (section 22).

14.2 NSW Government
The first NSW Koala Strategy (2018–21) aimed to address key threats to stabilise and then increase koala numbers in the wild. The NSW Government's $44.7 million investment to deliver the strategy secured significant outcomes, including:
    * adding more than 4,400 hectares of Koala habitat to the New South Wales national park estate, setting aside more than 8,900 hectares of state forest for Koalas and conserving 2,834 hectares of Koala habitat on private land through conservation agreements
    * delivering more than 70 local Koala conservation actions in partnership with community groups, councils and universities, including habitat restoration, dog attack and