28th July 2025
The Nature Conservation Council of NSW, the state's leading environmental advocacy organisation, is calling for urgent protection of rural bushland after Government data released today shows a dramatic jump in land clearing rates.
New South Wales' latest land clearing data shows we are wiping out over 66,000 hectares of the Australian bush each year - that's equivalent to bull-dozing Sydney's Royal National Park four times over.
"The jump in land clearing across NSW by 40% during Labor's first year of governing is a major red flag. The Government needs to get moving on its election commitment to 'end runaway land clearing'," Nature Conservation Council NSW CEO Jacqui Mumford said.
"Just last month the state's foremost scientific scorecard - the State of the Environment Report - signalled that nature was getting worse across the board, with vegetation clearing a major driver of biodiversity decline.
"Destroying native bushland directly kills and displaces native animals, opens land up to erosion and weed invasion and decreases the health of the landscape.
"If we continue on the current trajectory, scientists predict NSW will lose nearly 500 wildlife species to extinction within the next century.
"The data released today is yet more evidence that NSW's environmental laws are too weak.
"We're calling on Premier Chris Minns to do as promised and strengthen habitat clearing laws urgently."
Some of the highest land clearing rates are occurring in the western part of the state, which is home to the last populations of endangered malleefowl and critically endangered red-tailed black-cockatoos.
"Today's findings are not surprising. When the previous government scrapped the Native Vegetation Act in 2016 we saw land clearing rates triple, and since then it's remained out of control," Ms Mumford said.
The data released today confirmed agriculture as the biggest driver of land clearing in NSW. In 2023, 77% of all clearing was due to agriculture - or 51,201 hectares.
It also showed that woodland and forest clearing on private land climbed particularly sharply.
"Tens of thousands of hectares of private land covered with habitat, that could have supported koalas and other species, were cleared in just 12 months, and the creatures that call those trees home are paying the price," Ms Mumford said.
"Currently, agricultural businesses can bulldoze bushland, including koala habitat, without any independent assessment, due to regulation changes by the previous Liberal National Coalition Government. That needs to end.
"The Labor Government promised to rein in land clearing before the last election, but it's still a free-for-all."
Background:
· The latest data produced by the NSW Government as part of its annual Statewide Land and Tree Study (SLATS) survey shows that 66,498 hectares of NSW bush was destroyed across the state in 2023 through agriculture, native forestry and development. This is a 47% increase from 45,252 hectares cleared in 2022.
· Based on average yearly land clearing rates, since coming to Government in March 2023 around 192,525 hectares of native vegetation may have been cleared by private landowners.
· At the 2023 state election the Labor Government made commitments to: 'stop excess land clearing, strengthen environmental protections and reform the biodiversity offset scheme'. These commitments are also articulated in their Plan for Nature.
· In 2023 77% of all vegetation cleared was on agricultural lands, 15% due to private native forestry and 8% attributed to infrastructure development.
· Clearing native vegetation directly kills and displaces native animals. Over time, the effects of habitat fragmentation and disturbance can lead to invasion by weeds and further deteriorate the condition and habitat values of the remnant vegetation.
· According to the latest NSW State of the Environment Report report cards, of the 1000 plant and animal species listed as threatened in NSW only 50% are predicted to be living within 100 years time (i.e. 500 species will be extinct in 100 years).
