NSW farmers stepped up land clearing after the Berejiklian government weakened restrictions, tripling the area of native vegetation removed in 2017-18 compared with three years earlier, new data reveals.

Land cleared for crops, pasture or thinning totalled 27,100 hectares last financial year, or almost 100 times the size of Sydney's CBD. That rate exceeded land cleared for forestry in the state for the first time since 2005-06, figures from the Office of Environment and Heritage show.

Farmers in NSW cleared more than 27,000 hectares of land last financial year for crops, pasture or thinning, doubling the rate of two years earlier. Credit:Jessica Shapiro

The figures are the first since the government overhauled native vegetation protection laws in August 2017. They show land-clearing rates for farming jumped a third in the 2017-18 year alone, and were up from 9700 hectares in 2014-15.

The amount of land clearing detected by satellites that has "not been associated with an approval or exemption" swelled to 15,600 hectares last financial year, up from 10,300 hectares in 2016-17.