Land clearing that is driving NSW's nature crisis is charging ahead at an alarming rate with agriculture largely to blame, new government data shows.
An area more than 160 times the size of Sydney's CBD was cleared in 2022, according to the latest study that tracks tree and land cover losses across the state.
The 45,000 hectares destroyed that year pushes the five-year tally above 420,000 hectares - more than one and half times the size of the ACT.
The NSW government released the data amid Australia's ongoing fight against new EU rules that will ban imports of Australian beef linked to deforestation.
Agriculture remains the primary driver of land clearing in the state, with significant volumes also lost to infrastructure and the logging of native forests.
While there's been a downward trend in recent years, conservation groups say land clearing rates remain unsustainable.
WWF warns there's no way Australia will keep its global commitment to end deforestation by 2030 if the worst offending states don't lift their game.
"We are not on track to get there. And if NSW holds out, or Queensland, we can't. This has implications for our national commitments," says Dr Stuart Blanch, the conservation group's forest policy manager.
Dr Blanch says it's clear NSW is still paying the price for the previous Coalition government's 2016 decision to gut land clearing laws.
He says the current Labor government has promised to stop excessive land clearing but won't strengthen the existing weak laws until 2026.
"We're going in the right direction, but not nearly quick enough."
WWF says stronger laws are only one part of the equation and the state must also fund conservation payments to farmers to protect what's on their land.
"Most biodiversity is on farmland not in national parks in NSW. You've got to change the economics," Dr Blanch says.
"The government needs to support the NSW beef industry to become deforestation free and we also need high integrity carbon and biodiversity markets ... that will pay farmers to not clear."
NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe says the state's biodiversity is in crisis, and land clearing rates must come down.
She says her government's plan for nature sets out immediate priorities to address biodiversity loss from native vegetation clearing.
"But it is just the start of concerted action, legal reform and investment to start to restore biodiversity across NSW."
Earlier this week, federal Labor and Nationals senators voiced concern for Australian beef producers and passed a motion calling on the EU to delay its deforestation rules, which are due to take effect at the end of the year.
Federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins on Friday said the government wants to make sure Australian products "are not impeded".
"We have strong environmental laws in Australia. We have great public health and food safety laws. We have terrific biosecurity. I don't want to see any Australian product impeded."
The Greens agriculture spokesman Peter Whish-Wilson says the new land clearing figures and push by the senate, make Australia "a laughing stock".
"The EU is a major market. They've given the Australian government plenty of time to prepare for this but it just shows that the government hasn't got their house in order," he told AAP on Friday.
AAP is seeking comment from Cattle Australia.
