Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00555:body:0:p7
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00555
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 17439–20361

a drawcard, it provides a significant contribution to Australia's tourism economy (Hundloe and Hamilton 1997). The Koala is also of global biodiversity significance because it is the only surviving member of the ancient line of the marsupial family Phascolarctidae (Black 1999).
The Koala is associated with trees of the genera Eucalyptus, Corymbia, and Angophora, on which it predominantly feeds (Moore and Foley 2000), and is widely, but patchily, distributed across eastern and southern mainland Australia (Figure 1; section 21, DAWE 2021a).
In 2012, the Koala (combined populations of Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory) was determined to be a species under s517 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), and was included in the Vulnerable category on the list of threatened species under the Act (TSSC 2012a). In 2021, a reassessment by the Threatened Species Scientific Committee up-listed these populations to Endangered (TSSC 2021).
Hereafter, the Koala will be referred to as either 'Koala' or 'Koalas' when referring to individuals or populations, 'the Koala' or 'the species' when referring to the species as a whole, or the 'listed Koala' when referring explicitly to the EPBC Act-listed Koala (combined populations of Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory). The populations of Victoria and South Australia may be referred to by their state origin or collectively as either the 'unlisted Koala' or 'southern populations'; the latter is consistent with the term used in research publications.
The overarching threats to the listed Koala are land use change and climate change. Other direct threats include disease, dogs and vehicles (Part IV) (TSSC 2021). These threats interact to impact population size of the listed Koala and distribution through associated ecologically threatening processes of habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation, exacerbation of disease impacts, disruption of population processes, impediments to safe movement and loss of genetic diversity (Figure 4, Part VI). Because of the listed Koala's large distribution, the relative importance of these threats varies at local scales.
This National Recovery Plan for the listed Koala (the recovery plan) is made under the EPBC Act. The purpose of this plan is to provide for the research and management actions necessary to stop the decline of, and support the recovery of, the listed Koala so that the chances of its long-term survival in nature are maximised. It is the road map to recovery.
This recovery plan is informed by the 2021 EPBC Act listing assessment and Conservation Advice (TSSC 2021), new research, state and territory Koala plans and strategies, and consultation with partners, interest groups and individuals. Although the recovery plan focuses on the ten years to 2032, it is also a plan for the conservation of the listed