Australian scientists have called for an overhaul of the national reserves system and better funding for wildlife research after a global report listed koalas among 10 species to be ''hardest hit'' by climate change.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature the world's top conservation body ranks koalas with polar bears, emperor penguins, Arctic foxes, clownfish and leatherback turtles on a ''hit list'' of climate casualties.
In a report issued at the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen, the union said koalas faced multiple climate change threats, including more frequent bushfires, heat stress, starvation and malnutrition.
It said bushfires had ''already wiped out considerable populations of koalas'' and scientists were ''not optimistic of the ability of this highly specialised species to adapt to climate change.''
The head of one of Queensland's biggest community landcare groups, Mike Berwick, said the report emphasised the need to ''get serious about looking after the health of our landscapes, right across the country''.
He said a new approach to conservation was needed that questioned the effectiveness of ''a land management system that creates conservation islands in the landscape and calls them national parks''.
''We have got to have links right across the landscape, and be prepared to pay people to do it.
''The plight of the koala also stressed the need ''for a better, smarter system of biodiversity management than waiting until we're trying to rescue species from the edge of a precipice''.
A spokesman for Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the koala's status was being reassessed and if scientific advice recommended listing the koala ''under the national environment law then that is what [Mr Garrett] will do''.
One of Australia's top koala researchers, University of Central Queensland ecologist Alistair Melzer, said the potential impact of climate change on koalas had been known for many years but ignored by governments and Australia's climate change lobby groups.
Prolonged drought had caused regional extinctions of koalas in central Queensland ''as far back as the 1990s''.
''We've seen changes ranging from scattered deaths of trees in coastal woodlands, to the die-back of entire riparian systems,'' he said.
Photographs of koalas searching for water during record heatwaves in Victoria and South Australia earlier this year were ''a tragedy that was misinterpreted by people as cute and endearing behaviour''.
''If koalas are out on the ground, in searing heat, looking for water, that's a sign they're close to metabolic shutdown. It's a sign of heat exhaustion, and there's a very real danger they are going to die,'' Dr Melzer said.
''The reaction to those photographs shows people were unaware that what they were seeing was a terrible, tragic manifestation of climate change.''
Another problem for koalas is increased carbon levels in the atmosphere, which are changing the chemistry of eucalypt leaves, reducing protein and increasing toxic tannins.
The nutritional quality of leaves is poor, and a koala must eat more than 500g of leaves a day to obtain adequate nutrients.
Malnutrition affects breeding and lactating female koalas, which may be unable to give birth or produce nutritionally adequate milk.
''Populations have already crashed in Queensland, and in places where the animals are surviving, it's in pretty low numbers,'' Dr Melzer said.
Koala research funds were also scarce, Dr Melzer said.
Conservation group Earthwatch recently cancelled its support for one of his research projects as a result of the global financial crisis.
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