The sections below are key information from Australia's State of the Forests Report. This information provides important context for users of the Forests Australia website.
Forest definition
The definition of forest used by Australia's National Forest Inventory is:
An area, incorporating all living and non-living components, that is dominated by trees having usually a single stem and a mature or potentially mature stand height exceeding 2 metres and with existing or potential crown cover of overstorey strata about equal to or greater than 20 per cent. This includes Australia’s diverse native forests and plantations, regardless of age. It is also sufficiently broad to encompass areas of trees that are sometimes described as woodlands.
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Forest area
The following information is from the 2023 update of Indicator 1.1a Area of forest by forest type and tenure for Australia's State of the Forests Report.
Australia has a total of 133.6 million hectares of forest, which is equivalent to 17% of Australia's land area. Of this total forest area, determined as at 2021, 131.5 million hectares (98%) are Native forests, 1.82 million hectares are Commercial plantations and 0.24 million hectares are Other forest. Australia has about 3% of the world's forest area, and globally is the country with the seventh largest forest area.
Queensland has the largest area of Australia’s forest (51.8 million hectares—39% of Australia’s forest), with the Northern Territory (23.3 million hectares—18%), Western Australia (20.4 million hectares—16%), and New South Wales (19.9 million hectares—15%), making up much of the balance.
Maps of Australia's forests are available on the Forest maps page.
Australia's National Forest Inventory forest cover dataset, used in Australia’s State of the Forests Report, provides the best available and the most accurate representation of Australia’s forest extent. The best quantitative measure of the actual change over time in Australia’s total forest area is obtained from the annual forest area figures produced for the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory for the purpose of calculation of net emissions from forest lands, published in annual National Inventory Reports.
Forest categories and forest types
The following information is from the 2023 update of Indicator 1.1a Area of forest by forest type and tenure for Australia's State of the Forests Report.
The forests of Australia are diverse and highly valued, and are among the country's most important natural resources. Australia's National Forest Inventory recognises three forest categories: Native forest (132 million hectares), Commercial plantation (1.8 million hectares) and Other forest (0.2 million hectares).
Australia's native forests occur in a broad range of geographic landscapes and climatic environments, and contain a wide array of mostly endemic species (that is, species found nowhere else) combining to form unique and complex ecosystems. Forests are generally confined to regions where average rainfall exceeds 500 millimetres per year. Forests extend across Australia's northern tropical regions, and down the east coast through sub-tropical regions to temperate cool-season wet and cold–wet zones in the south-east; they are also found in Mediterranean climatic zones in the south-east and south-west of Australia. In some regions, forests extend from these wetter, coastal and sub-coastal areas into central, drier parts of the continent. Through these regions, forests grow on soils that vary from ancient, fragile and relatively infertile soils, to recent, fertile soils of volcanic origin.
Australia's native forests provide a range of wood and non-wood products that are used by Australians in their everyday lives. They also provide clean water; protect soil; provide opportunities for recreation and tourism, and scientific and educational pursuits; and support cultural, heritage and aesthetic values.
Native forests are categorised in Australia's National Forest Inventory into eight national forest types named after their key genus or structural form: Acacia, Callitris, Casuarina, Eucalypt, Mangrove, Melaleuca, Rainforest, and Other native forest (which includes a range of minor native forest types that are named after their dominant genera, including Agonis, Atalaya, Banksia, Hakea, Grevillea, Heterodendron, Leptospermum, Lophostemon and Syncarpia). Across the wide range of rainfall and soil conditions that support forest, most of Australia's Native forest category of forest is dominated by eucalypts (77%) and acacias (8%).
Note: The names of the national native forest types have capitalised initial letters (e.g. Acacia forest). The related common names do not have capitalised initial letters (e.g. acacias). The related formal genus names are italicised and have capitalised initial letters (e.g. Acacia).
Commercial plantations are plantations grown on a commercial scale for wood production, while Other forest includes small areas of mostly non-industrial plantations and planted forests of various types including sandalwood plantations, small farm forestry and agroforestry plantations, plantations within the reserve system, and plantations regarded as non-commercial. Non-planted forest dominated by introduced tree species is also included in the Other forest category.
Australia's Commercial plantations are a major source of commercial wood products. Australia's Commercial plantations consist of 1.1 million hectares of exotic softwood (predominantly Pinus radiata), and 0.7 million hectares of hardwood (predominantly eucalypt species such as Eucalyptus globulus).
Forest tenure and ownership
The following information is from the 2023 update of Indicator 1.1a Area of forest by forest type and tenure for Australia's State of the Forests Report.
The ownership of a forest, especially native forest, has a major bearing on its management intent. The six tenure classes used for forest land in the National Forest Inventory are amalgamations of the wide range of classes used by various state and territory jurisdictions. The classes can be grouped on the basis of ownership as public or private, with a small area of unresolved tenure (0.2%). Publicly owned forests are classified as Nature conservation reserve, Multiple-use public forest, and Other Crown land. Leasehold forest is forest on Crown land (land that belongs to a national, state or territory government) that is typically privately managed. Some forests on private land are publicly managed as conservation reserves. For commercial plantations, the ownership of the land can be different from the ownership of the trees, and management arrangements can be complex.
Of the 133.6 million hectares of forest in Australia, 48.0 million hectares (36%) is on leasehold land, and 42.8 million hectares (32%) is on land held under private freehold title. Consequently, a total of 90.8 million hectares (98%) of Australia’s forest is under some form of private management. A further 22.1 million hectares of forest (17%) is in formal Nature conservation reserves, 10.7 million hectares of forest (8.0%) is classified as Multiple-use public forest, and 9.8 million hectares of forest (7.3%) is classified as Other Crown land.
Indigenous forest management
The following information is from the 2024 update of Indicator 6.4a Area of forest to which Indigenous people have use and rights that protect their special values and are recognised through formal and informal management regimes for Australia's State of the Forests Report.
More than half of Australia’s forests (79.9 million hectares, 60% of Australia's forest area) is identified as part of the Indigenous forest estate as one of four broad Indigenous land tenure and management categories: Indigenous owned and managed; Indigenous managed; Indigenous co-managed; and areas with Other special rights. About 61% of this forest area is in Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Other sources of information:
- Australia's forests and forestry glossary is a stand-alone product, developed from the glossary published in Australia's State of the Forests Report 2018 and contains definitions of terms related to forests and forestry at the national level in Australia.