Pictures taken by murdered Environmental Officer Glen Turner of land clearing shortly before he was slain. "We fear it is just a glimpse of what's to come if the government introduces its new land-clearing laws with weaker environmental protections to parliament later this year." The government has announced plans to repeal the Native Vegetation and Threatened Species acts, replacing them with a Biodiversity Conservation Act and other laws. Critics say the proposed changes will only remove brakes on land clearing, many of which are already failing because of weak enforcement and poor design. Of 4417 properties with unexplained clearing in the 2010-11 to 2012-13 years, actions were taken on fewer than one-fifth, or 818, the report said. "We in NSW are in the middle of an extinction crisis - we cannot afford to keep losing wildlife habitat at this rate or we will lose species like the koala forever," Ms Smolski said. "It's a disgrace that the government continues to allow this to happen."

Mark Speakman, the environment minister, said the report was based on satellite data. He defended the delay in the release - about three years - saying staff were giving priority to the new land management plans. "The proposed biodiversity conservation and land management reforms aim to improve monitoring of land clearing," Mr Speakman said. "As part of these reforms, the government has invested in precise satellite imagery that will provide more regular and detailed knowledge of changes in vegetation, and therefore facilitate more effective compliance and enforcement activity." Researchers such as Phil Gibbons, a biodiversity expert at the Australian National University, said the government is already underestimating land clearing losses by as much as six-fold. "We have a set of liberal exemptions already and the proposed reforms will extend them," Associate Professor Gibbons said. "You can't tell where half the clearing is coming from." John Hunter, an ecologist with the University of New England, said the use of satellite imagery picked up clearing of woody vegetation but largely ignored the clearing of non-woody vegetation, such as grassland.

"By sticking to clearing of woody vegetation they are only telling half the story," Dr Hunter said, noting about one third of the state was covered with non-woody vegetation. ​"The new legislation is likely to lead to further losses as it's open to interpretation by the landholder," he said. "Despite all the written caveats, it is up to the landholder to decide based on the maps they have." Penny Sharpe, Labor's environment spokeswoman, said the new report "paints a disturbing trend of increasing illegal clearing across NSW". "Cuts to [the Office of Environment and Heritage], minimal compliance from the [Environment Protection Authority] and lack of leadership from the minister mean that the illegal chainsaws will continue to destroy native vegetation," Ms Sharpe said. The National Parks Association of NSW said the report also showed the creation of new national parks had all but stalled since the Coalition took power in 2011.

The average annual rate of park additions up to 2013-14 was just 9,753 hectares, or a 95 per cent reduction on the previous six-year average of 173,965 hectares, the association said. "The NSW government just returned a $3.4 billion surplus, yet there is no investment in new protected areas, said Kevin Evans, chief executive of the NPA, adding the state was missing out on the tourism potential. Loading Follow Peter Hannam on Twitter and Facebook.