Koalas are on track to be extinct by 2050 in New South Wales if current land clearing rates continue, according to conservation biologist Martin Taylor, who today released a new report on the issue.

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The report, released by WWF Australia and the Nature Conservation Council (NCC), used select satellite images of northern NSW to assess land clearing and its impact on vulnerable and endangered species.

Mr Taylor said if the rate of clearing wasn't wound back there could be serious consequences for native wildlife.

"We see koala habitat disappearing at an alarming rate," he said.

"The numbers are low, and everybody out there is telling us that koalas are dropping terribly.

"If we project that forward, it could be mid-century by the time we may have no more wild koalas in NSW."

Sorry, this video has expired 'Losing these koalas would be a horror story,' says Martin Taylor

Mr Taylor's report set out to examine changes in the rate and extent of land clearing in north-central NSW following the repeal of the Native Vegetation Act (2003) last year and the impact of the current Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Mr Taylor described the moves as "taking the axe to native vegetation laws".

His report found that from 2016-17 to 2017-18 the rate of land either fully or partly cleared almost tripled, from 2,845 hectares to 8,194 hectares.

The NSW Government has rubbished Mr Taylor's warning of possible koala extinction, with the NSW Environment Minister's office releasing a statement pointing to its ongoing koala strategy.

"The WWF and NCC are playing politics and scaremongering," the statement read.

"The NSW Government's Koala Strategy — the biggest commitment by any state government to secure koalas in the wild — will provide more natural habitat for koalas, tackle diseases, improve research and fix roadkill hotspots.

"The NSW Government has committed $45 million for this strategy."

In July, the NSW Department of Primary Industries also reported it had used ground-breaking recording techniques to find koala numbers were far higher than first thought.

'Satellites don't lie'

Richard Kingsford is a professor of environmental science and the director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science at UNSW.

He said the methodology of the WWF/NCC paper appeared sound, but the prediction of possible koala extinction by 2050 was "blunt".

"[The report] seems to be rigorously done ... the satellite imagery doesn't lie," he said.

"It's clearly identified that clearing has gone on — that seems incontrovertible — I think the more difficult leap is what does that mean in terms of potential extinction of species.

"I think once you get into predictions there are a whole lot of unknowns.

"Like you're assuming the farmers are going to keep clearing at the same rate, you're assuming that governments don't change their policies."

Professor Kingsford said while NSW did have some protected zones and policies to preserve wildlife, his understanding was there was nothing to stop the current level of land clearing.

"That was clearly the intention when the Biodiversity Act came in and the Vegetation Management Act was essentially brought into the Biodiversity Act," he said.

"It was quite clear that the government wanted to allow for farmers to have more opportunity to clear their land."

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