Australia officially listed koalas across a swathe of its eastern coast as "endangered" on Friday, with the marsupials fighting to survive the impact of bushfires, land-clearing, drought, and disease.

Conservationists pointed out that koala populations had crashed in much of eastern Australia over the past two decades, warning that they were now sliding towards extinction.

Australian Environment Minister Sussan Ley confirmed that she had designated koala populations as "endangered" to offer them a higher level of protection in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and Queensland.

Failure to protect Australia's national icon

The koala, a globally recognized symbol of Australia's unique wildlife, had been listed as "vulnerable" on the eastern coast just a decade earlier.

"We are taking unprecedented action to protect the koala," the minister said, highlighting a recent government promise of Aus$50 million (US$36 million) to protect and recover koala habitats.

Environmentalists welcomed the koalas' new status but condemned Australia's failure to protect the species so far.

Listing won't stop koalas from extinction

"Koalas have gone from no-listing to vulnerable to endangered within a decade. That is a shockingly fast decline," indicated World Wildlife Fund-Australia conservation scientist Stuart Blanch.

"Today's decision is welcome but it won't stop koalas from sliding towards extinction unless it's accompanied by stronger laws and landholder incentives to protect their forest homes," he warned.

Conservationists said it was hard to give precise figures on koala populations in the affected eastern states.

But estimates by an independent government advisory body -- the Threatened Species Scientific Committee -- indicated that koala numbers had plunged from 185,000 in 2001 to just 92,000 in 2021.

Alexia Wellbelove of the Humane Society International warned that east coast koalas could be extinct by 2050 if no action was taken. 

Destruction of koala habitats should stop

The Australian Conservation Foundation mentioned that its own research showed that the federal government had approved the clearing of more than 25,000 hectares of koala habitat since the species was declared vulnerable a decade ago.

"Australia’s national environment laws are so ineffective they have done little to stem the ongoing destruction of koala habitat in Queensland and NSW since the species was supposedly protected a decade ago," underlined the foundation's nature campaign manager, Basha Stasak.

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"We must stop allowing their homes to be bulldozed for mines, new housing estates, agricultural projects and industrial logging," he affirmed.

Living on a "knife edge"

Australia's koalas had been living on a "knife edge" even before the devastating "Black Summer" bushfires of 2019-2020 because of land-clearing, drought, disease, car strikes and dog attacks, explained Josey Sharrad, wildlife campaign manager at the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

"We should never have allowed things to get to the point where we are at risk of losing a national icon," Sharrad said.