Farmers in New South Wales will be able to clear more land under the State Government's proposed new conservation and biodiversity laws.

As promised before the last election, the Government is planning to repeal the Native Vegetation Act and replace it with the Biodiversity Conservation Act.

The Native Vegetation Act was designed, a decade ago, to prevent mass land clearings.

The Government said while the legislation would be overhauled, it would not result in mass land clearing.

"This is not a return to the days that pre-dated the current native vegetation legislation," Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair said.

"This is a sophisticated policy that has adequate controls."

Farmers 'can move to Queensland' if they want to be cowboys

The planned changes cut red tape for farmers giving them greater flexibility for land clearing on their property.

Farmers will be given a map of their land by the Department of Primary Industries, outlining which parts are subject to regulation and which are exempt.

When farmers want to clear large areas of land they will have to offset that or set aside another parcel of land for vegetation on their property.

"We believe this is a policy that utilises farmers as part of the solution and we believe that this something that will genuinely increase the biodiversity for this state," Mr Blair said.

"There are those unfortunately who have operated outside the laws and acted like cowboys," Deputy Premier Troy Grant said.

"In our package there is still no place for them. If they want to be a cowboy they can move to Queensland."

As part of their proposal, the Government committed $240 million over five years for conservation projects on private land, and $70 million will be provided each year after that.

"Biodiversity has gone backwards for the last 20 years," Environment Minister Mark Speakman said.

"Despite the measures that are in the Native Vegetation Act we have seen a continual decline in biodiversity in NSW."

Environment groups warn of land disaster

The proposed changes were described as a "qualified win" for farmers by an industry representative, who also said the measures would not result in mass land clearings.

"The current bill was unworkable, it was giving perverse outcomes for productivity and perverse outcomes for the environment," NSW Farmers spokesman Derek Schoen said.

"The majority of farmers are well versed [in] what is required from them and the community expectations in custodian of the environment and the land."

The chief executive of the Nature Conservation Council Kate Smolski said the package "does everything to facilitate land clearing and development across New South Wales".

"We are going to impact on our top soil, we are going to impact on water resources and we are going to impact wildlife habitat across the state due to the reduction of important protections we are seeing in regulations here in New South Wales," she said.

The Total Environment Centre's Lee Martin said: "This act will simply facilitate land clearing in New South Wales".

The Government's proposal will be open for public consultation for eight weeks.