David Attenborough and Jane Goodall back campaign for a new national park in Victoria

International conservationists Sir David Attenborough and Dr Jane Goodall have made an unusual intervention into Victorian politics by calling for a new national park to be created to save the endangered Leadbeater’s possum.

Sir David, who is currently visiting Australia, has thrown his support behind the establishment of the Great Forest national park, which would encompass much of the central highlands area of Victoria.

The naturalist and wildlife documentary maker told The Guardian “the maintenance of an intact ecological system is the only way to ensure the continued existence of biodiversity, safeguard water supplies and provide spiritual nourishment for ourselves and future generations.

“It is for these reasons, and for the survival of the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum, that I support the creation of the Great Forest national park for Victoria.”

Dr Goodall, famous for her work with primates in East Africa, said the national park would help secure the future of a threatened ecosystem, stating “if we act now, we will be ensuring the forest can continue to provide services that support us - clean water, fresh air and storage of carbon.

“If we fail now, what future will we have chosen for our grandchildren and their grandchildren?”

A new Great Forest national park in the central highlands’ would add 355,000 hectares of consolidated protected land to a patchwork of safeguarded forests north east of Melbourne.

Backed by an alliance of environmental groups, those calling for the proposed national park say the entire central highlands’ ecosystem, the fate of the emblematic Leadbeater’s possum, Victoria’s faunal emblem, and the economic future of struggling towns are at stake.

As the as the Victorian state election approaches, polling shows that nearly nine in 10 Victorians support the new park, say it would save the Leadbeater’s possum and also help secure Melbourne’s drinking water - 98% of which is regulated by the natural processes of the central highlands’ towering trees and other vegetation.

The region’s majestic mountain ash trees are the tallest flowering plants in the world, occasionally topping 100 metre, but a heavily subsidised logging industry, along with bushfires such as the devastating Black Saturday fires of 2009, have reduced the ecologically vital old growth trees to just 1% of the forest area.

While the region has giant trees, rolling valleys, vineyards and impressive local produce, it has struggled to compete with other regions for tourists.

However, its supporters say the Great Forest national park would be a vital draw card.

In recent years, logging has cut vast swathes through the forest, where the sought-after tall, straight trees have been clear-felled. 

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