For weeks, western Australia has been the victim of an intense wave of wildfires, with the flames striking above all New South Wales, where six people have lost their lives and over one and a half million hectares of forest have gone up in smoke. In early November, the fires burned through Gospers Mountain, reducing nearly 200,000 hectares to ash, before reaching the Blue Mountains, a vast protected area declared a World Heritage Site.

Parks in flames

Since the start of the fire season, according to the Australian government, the flames have burned more than 10 per cent of the area covered by national parks in New South Wales, including 20 per cent of the area occupied by the Blue Mountains.

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A global tragedy

The fire has not spared the Gondwana rainforest, an ancient and boundless rainforest that is home to an incredible number of animal and plant species, with a high rate of endemism. Every blow dealt to this archaic ecosystem, which takes its name from the ancient supercontinent Gondwana or Gondwanaland, represents an irreparable loss for the entire planet.

A treasure to protect

Since July, more than 800,000 hectares of protected areas have burned in New South Wales, said Chris Gambian, chief executive of the Australian organisation Nature Conservation Council. The "monumental" scale of the fires has made the protection of ecosystems more urgent than ever and demands a paradigm shift. The state's rainforests, long shielded from fire by their perennial moisture, are repositories safeguarding ancient biodiversity, and must be preserved.

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Above-average fires

The flames tearing through Australia are not a new phenomenon; the continent has a long history of devastating fires behind it. However, it had been sixteen years since fires of such extent had been seen in Australia, and the toll is set to worsen with the arrival of summer. Behind these events looms the long shadow of climate change: Australia is experiencing increasingly scorching summers, ever more widespread droughts, and is being swept by stronger than normal winds.

Wildlife in danger

Australia's ancient and distinctive wildlife, already grappling with deforestation and invasive species, has been severely hit by the fires. The emblematic species of the unfolding tragedy is the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus): New South Wales is a crucial area for populations of this iconic marsupial. The Lake Innes nature reserve is home to a colony of over 600 individuals, and it is feared that 350 of them have burned to death. Yet, despite what was reported a few months ago by the Australian Koala Foundation (Akf), koalas would not be "functionally extinct" and the ongoing fires will fortunately not cause their final disappearance.