Australia’s 2008 State of the Forests Report Released

By Hans Drielsma, Executive General Manager

Australia's State of the Forests Report 2008 was launched by the Hon Tony Burke MP, and Commonwealth Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in Bairnsdale, Victoria on Wednesday 21 May 2008.

The Report draws upon a wide range of data from the public and private sectors, to provide the most comprehensive review yet of the state of our forests. The report uses the criteria and indicator framework of sustainable forest management developed for this purpose by the Montreal Process Implementation Group for Australia (MIG).


Amongst the Report’s key findings are some positive signs:

• Australia’s forests sequester more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than they emit and therefore help to offset Australia’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions.

• Plantations offset about 3.5% and managed native forests about 5.5% of total national greenhouse gas emissions in 2005. Additional storage in wood products offset a further 1% of emissions.

• Since the 2003 Report, the area of Australia’s native forest in formal nature conservation reserves has increased by about 1.5 million hectares to 23 million hectares, from 13% to 16%.

• The use of the (not-for-profit) Australian Forestry Standard forest certification (8.5 million ha) and FSC (approximately 600,000 ha) to demonstrate good forest management and maintain access to markets has grown rapidly to cover over nine million hectares of native forests and plantations by September 2007.

• The area of multiple-use public forests, in which wood production is an objective, declined from 11.4 million hectares in 2000–01 to 9.4 million hectares in 2005–06.

• Over 30 million hectares of public forests (20% of the total forest area) is managed primarily for protection, including of soil and water values; most is in nature conservation reserves.

• The net loss of woody vegetation (mostly forest) estimated by the Australian Greenhouse Office was 260,000 hectares (0.25%) per year between 2000 and 2004, due mainly to clearing for agriculture and urban development.

The 2008 report was prepared by the MIG, comprised of representatives from the Australian, state and territory governments. Production of the report was co-ordinated by the Bureau of Rural Sciences on behalf of the MIG.

In addition to the main report, a package of supporting materials will also be launched, comprising a stand-alone executive summary and a series of fact sheets on topical forest issues such as carbon, certification, conservation, employment, fire, sustainable yield, forest type and extent, and water.



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