Park hunt bags O'Farrell an F - Sydney Morning Herald

Hunting, developments warranted strikes: Premier Barry O'Farrell. Photo: Jeff de Pasquale

• Robyn Parker's response to report card

The decision to allow hunting in national parks has resulted in the O'Farrell government being handed an F - the lowest possible grade - in a report card on its performance in the area of ecosystem protection during its first two years in power.

As the government prepares to mark the mid-point of its first four-year term in office next week, the Nature Conservation Council is compiling an analysis of its record across a range of issues it identified as crucial at the 2011 election.

The release of the full report card will coincide with the second anniversary on March 26, but the council has revealed that, on the key indicator of ecosystem protection, it has marked the government with 2/10, the equivalent of an F.

To compile the report card, the council attributed to the government a score of 50 per cent before the analysis. It added or deducted 10 per cent for each parameter examined, or recorded a neutral score if there was no change.

Legislation to introduce recreational hunting of feral animals in national parks and extend hunting in state forests had the government marked down by 10 per cent.

Plans to remove a requirement for many developments to have threatened species assessments had it marked down, as did a trial of ''ecological thinning'' of river red gums and a proposed horse-riding trial in wilderness areas.

Funding cuts to the Office of Environment and Heritage, the Department of Primary Industries, the Catchment Management Authority and the National Parks and Wildlife Service drew penalties.

But the government received praise for the declaration of Dharawal National Park in south-west Sydney, for declaring 2891 hectares of wilderness within the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park and for supporting the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative, which aims to create a large-scale conservation corridor.

Overall, however, the council delivered the O'Farrell government a mark of 20 per cent in the area of ecosystem protection.

The council's chief executive, Pepe Clarke, said ''modest'' conservation achievements such as Dharawal were ''overshadowed by a succession of environmentally damaging policy decisions''.

But Environment Minister Robyn Parker questioned the quality and accuracy of the analysis.

She said it was ''naive'' to suggest that simply not adding the same number of hectares to national parks as the previous government equated to a failure of ecosystem protection.

She said there had been no change in the past two years to the way development is assessed for impact on threatened species, and described this part of the report as ''scaremongering''.