Deborah Tabart OAM, CEO of the Australian Koala Foundation, is fondly known as the Koala Woman. She has been at her post since February 1988. At that time she was told to raise $5m and “save the Koala.” Since then, Deborah has focussed her attention on mapping Koala habitat. If you cannot save a habitat, you will never save any species. The AKF takes no Government funding and has, over the years spoken more and more confidently about the plight of the Koala. The AKF scientifically estimates there are between 50,000 and 100,000 Koalas in the wild remaining. Deborah believes that the lower number is the accurate figure. Between 1890 and 1927, the AKF has found manifests for 8m koala skins which were sold on the New York and London fur market. Today we discuss the plight of the koalas.
