Environmental groups are incensed logging in NSW native forests has doubled while endangered iconic species such as koalas are disappearing.
Nature Conservation Council CEO Jacqui Mumford says a new report from the Forestry Corporation shows that native forest logging is tearing through trees.
The 2021-22 Sustainability Report shows that total wood harvested jumped from 272,499 cubic metres in 2020-21 to 477,460 cubic metres in 2021-22, an increase of 175 per cent.
"These figures show a complete disregard for the decline of our unique forest-dependent wildlife," Ms Mumford said.
"In a year where some of our most iconic forest species like the southern greater glider, koala and gang-gang cockatoo were listed as endangered, rates of native forest logging almost doubled," she said.
"Under the current government, nature is sadly in sharp decline."
NSW parliament debated a motion in October to end native forest logging brought about by a petition which gathered over 20,000 signatures.
Responding to the petition, Agriculture Minister Dugald Saunders said "we're talking about one per cent of the state forests that's being harvested... it's a tiny amount, it's a managed amount and it's not done in way with disregard for the environment".
"To suggest timber, forests and state forests don't work hand in hand and don't support communities is just incorrect".
A 2020 parliamentary inquiry found koalas in the state could be extinct by 2050 unless the government makes drastic changes to knocking down trees.
An estimated 64,000 koalas were killed when 5.5 million hectares was destroyed during the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires in NSW.
"If these species are any hope of surviving, we need to urgently scale back logging and commit to ending the industry," Ms Mumford said.
She noted aside from the ecological damage, logging is also costing NSW taxpayers $19 per cubic metre.
Ms Mumford explained no tangible economic benefit was felt for the state with pulpwood being turned into cardboard boxes and toilet paper for overseas markets.
Australia has the highest rate of species extinction in the world, with climate change expected to raise the risk of further annihilation.
