Australia’s leading scientific expert on the endangered Leadbeater’s possum has publicly lambasted the Victorian state government, claiming it is the first ever domestic administration to take “calculated actions” that it knew could wipe out a threatened species.
In a letter published in the respected journal Science, Prof David Lindenmayer, of the Australian National University, states that “government-sanctioned legal logging of the reserve system will significantly increase the chance of extinction of Leadbeater’s possum.”
The letter, co-authored by Hugh Possingham, of the University of Queensland, claims that a “substantial watering down” of logging industry regulations has led to a drastic loss of the Leadbeater’s possum’s natural habitat.
It is estimated that there are just 1,500 of the tiny possums in pockets of the central highland forests of Victoria, and there are fears they may become extinct within a decade if their habitat is not conserved.
Tony Burke, the federal environment minister, who has been criticized for not intervening to safeguard the possum, told Guardian Australia that he was “deeply concerned” about the species and would push for it to be listed as critically endangered, which would ramp up conservation efforts.
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