Bristling debate about koalas that has had conservationists and forestry workers at loggerheads has been settled - at least in the chambers of parliament.

Two separate motions passed both houses of the NSW parliament on Wednesday in support of the government's mammoth conservation project to pave the way politically for legislation to establish the park within its first term.

The Great Koala National Park is slated to protect more than 12,000 koalas, about 36,000 greater gliders and more than 100 other threatened species.

It is also hoped to boost regional tourism and be partly funded through carbon credits.

But hundreds of timber jobs will be chopped.

Some 176,000 hectares of state forest will be connected to existing national parks to create a reserve twice the size of the Blue Moun

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