A new report from the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists has reignited debate over vegetation clearing in New South Wales, with researchers saying high-value biodiversity areas continue to be lost, but landholder groups strongly disputing the report’s accuracy and policy recommendations.

The Wentworth Group’s discussion paper released last week, Impact of vegetation clearing on NSW biodiversity 2010–2023 (link to full report below article), estimates that between 2016 and 2023 about 13,880 hectares of land classified as having high biodiversity value was cleared.

The group argues the findings highlight serious shortcomings in NSW environmental protections and has called for reforms to better safeguard threatened species.

Wentworth Group CEO Celine Steinfeld said the analysis suggested that in at least half of the high-value areas cleared during the period there was potential for “serious and irreversible impacts” on threatened species and ecological communities.

“This finding is highly concerning and reflects the shortcomings of NSW policy and legislation to protect our environment,” Dr Steinfeld said.

“Despite the important efforts made to recognise and map areas of high biodiversity value, they are still cleared.”

The report also estimates that since 2010 almost 700,000 hectares of land in NSW has been cleared, and that 80 percent of federally listed threatened species in the state are likely to have occurred in areas affected by clearing.

Landholders challenge methodology

However, landholder advocacy group Property Rights Australia says the report is bring promoted as proof that land clearing is driving biodiversity decline, but a closer look shows it is “not the hard-edged scientific analysis it is being portrayed as”.

“The report relies almost entirely on the government’s SLATS satellite mapping system,” the group stated.

“That system is useful for detecting disturbance, but it measures gross clearing events, not the overall balance of vegetation across the landscape.

“In other words, it records when trees are removed, but it does not account for regrowth, natural thickening, or increases in biomass elsewhere.”

It also says the Wentworth report ignores data showing that across much of eastern Australia, particularly in grazing country, woody vegetation is expanding, not contracting.

“Regrowth after earlier clearing, along with natural thickening, often exceeds the area cleared each year.

“Yet the Wentworth report presents a single headline figure for “clearing and re-clearing” without any corresponding analysis of how much vegetation is growing back.

“The same problem appears in their biodiversity claims. The report does not measure actual habitat loss or species decline. Instead, it overlays clearing maps with very broad species distribution maps and then states that clearing occurred in areas where species “may” exist.

“The authors themselves admit these maps “may or may not be actual habitat” and that the clearing simply represents a “risk” to species.”

‘Clearing figures are distorted’

NSW Farmers Conservation and Resource Management Committee Chair Bronwyn Petrie said the SLATS report is presented in a way that hides the real figures that can be described as ‘land clearing’ or ‘land use change’.

“The clearing figures are distorted because they include invasive native species management, which is environmental rehabilitation of land, as well as regrowth control and the clearing of ground covers which include introduced species, not native species, as the technology cannot distinguish between native and non-native ground cover.

“Given over half the clearing is attributed to ground cover, this greatly changes the picture of what is really happening on the ground.

“Clearing figures make no reference to the amount of land set aside for conservation, which is roughly four times as large. In 2023 only 731 hectares, a tiny amount of land, was cleared for change of land use in NSW with more than 8000 hectares set aside in perpetuity for the environment. Environmental groups seek to ignore the reality of reduced land clearing, which has gone from 98,345 hectares in 2018 to 66,498 hectares in 2023.”

She also pointed out that the 2024 Australia’s Environment Report from the Australian National University shows a canopy increase of 14 percent and a plant growth increase of 12 percent; both figures include losses and gains of vegetation.

“It has been and remains our goal at NSW Farmers to increase landholder engagement in balancing productive agriculture with better environmental outcomes, to build on the years of work that landholders have done to protect biodiversity on farms

“The last thing we need is increased regulation that will only drive farmers away from the sorts of environmental partnerships that are essential if NSW Government wants to meet its nature goals.”

Wentworth Group recommendations

The Wentworth Group is proposing several key recommendations stemming from its technical report:

• The NSW Government implement a Land Stewardship Package to facilitate landscape protection and restoration at scale;
• Safeguard NSW’s irreplaceable biodiversity and cultural values through law reforms that work for people and nature;
• Rebuild trust by working closely with communities to design and deliver required reforms, such as by increasing the involvement of regional communities in the identification, protection and management of high value biodiversity and cultural areas;
• Develop an online spatial tool which identifies natural and cultural values and tracks changes in their condition.

Link to Wentworth Group Report: https://wentworthgroup.org/2026/02/analysis-of-vegetation-clearing-in-new-south-wales-2010- 2023/