Cockie lovers Phoenix and Maryann Rath might need a bit of dye for their colourful umbrella for the protest to save black cockatoos this Tuesday. Photo supplied.

FIVE conservation groups will be holding a “black umbrella” protest and presenting thousands of postcards to WA environment minister Reece Whitby this coming week calling on him to help save black cockatoos.

Paddy Cullen from Save the Black Cockatoos said the black umbrellas would be used to construct a giant cockatoo for the protest.

He said the cockatoos were an umbrella species, which meant protecting them would benefit all threatened forests and woodlands “but numbers are falling drastically and they could all be extinct within a few decades.

“The state govenrment has a vegetation policy that has promised to be nature-positive and the federal government has promised to protect 30 per cent of the land and sea in natural habitat, but these policies are currently being buried under a layer of bulldozer dust.”

The groups are calling on the McGowan government to step back from a decision to clear the Gnangara pine plantation to protect the water mound below, saying it’s become critical to provide the cockatoos with a food source.

Mr Cullen also called for the recently released 10-year Forest Management Plan to be sent to the Environmental Protection Authority for assessment.

He says the amount of land proposed for national parks has dropped by some 300,000 hectares under the plan, while almost none of the areas set aside for conservation were in the most vulnerable and diverse areas.

The protest will be outside Parliament House this Tuesday May 23 at 11.30am.