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  4. Criteria and Indicators for reporting

Secondary Forests Australia

  • Forests Australia
    • Australia's forests
      • Forest profiles
        • Australia's forests-overview
        • Acacia forest
        • Callitris forest
        • Casuarina forest
        • Eucalypt forest
        • Mangrove forest
        • Melaleuca forest
        • Rainforest
        • Commercial plantations
    • Forest facts
    • Australia's State of the Forests Report
      • Synthesis 2023
      • Criterion 1: Conservation of biological diversity
        • 1.1a.i Forest area by type
          • 1.1a.i Supporting information
        • 1.1a.ii Forest area by tenure
          • 1.1a.ii Supporting information
        • 1.1a.iii Forest area in RFA regions
          • 1.1a.iii Supporting information
        • 1.1a.iv Forest area change over time
          • 1.1a.iv Supporting information
        • 1.1c: Area of forest protected for conservation
          • 1.1c: supporting information
        • 1.2a: Forest dwelling species
          • 1.2a: supporting information
        • 1.2b: Threatened forest dwelling species
          • 1.2b: supporting information
        • 1.3a: Species at risk from loss of genetic variation
          • 1.3a: supporting information
        • 1.3b: Genetic resource conservation
          • 1.3b: supporting information
      • Criterion 2: Productive capacity of forest ecosystems
        • 2.1a: Native forest available for wood production and the area harvested
        • 2.1b: Age class and growing stock of plantations
        • 2.1c: Annual removal of wood products compared to sustainable volumes
          • 2.1c.i Sustainable yield and harvest levels (2024)
          • 2.1c.ii Removals by log type (2024)
          • 2.1c.iii Forecast national log availability (2024)
        • 2.1e: Harvested area regenerated or re-established
      • Criterion 3: Ecosystem health and vitality
        • 3.1a: Forest health and vitality
          • 3.1a Supporting information
        • 3.1b: Area of forest burnt
          • 3.1b: supporting Information
      • Criterion 4: Soil and water resources
        • 4.1a: Area of forest managed for protective functions
      • Criterion 5: Forest contribution to global carbon cycles
        • 5.1a: Carbon in forests and forest products
      • Criterion 6: Socioeconomic benefits to meet the needs of societies
        • 6.1a: Value and volume of wood and wood products
          • 6.1a: supporting information
        • 6.1d: Production, consumption, import/export of wood and non-wood products
        • 6.2b: Investment in research and development
          • 6.2b: supporting information
        • 6.4a: Indigenous forest estate
        • 6.5a: Direct and indirect employment
          • 6.5a: supporting information
        • 6.5b: Wage rates and injury rates
          • 6.5b: supporting information
        • 6.5c: Resilience of forest dependent communities
          • 6.5c: supporting information
        • 6.5d: Resilience of forest dependent Indigenous communities
          • 6.5d: supporting information
      • Criterion 7: Legal, institutional and economic framework for conservation and sustainable management
        • 7.1a: Legal framework
          • 7.1a: supporting information
        • 7.1b: Institutional framework
          • 7.1b: supporting information
        • 7.1e: Capacity to conduct and apply research and development
          • 7.1e supporting information
      • About Australia’s State of the Forests Report
      • Past reporting
        • Australia's State of the Forests Report 2018
          • Executive summary
            • Data
          • Criterion 1 Conservation of biological diversity
          • Criterion 2: Maintenance of productive capacity of forest ecosystems
          • Criterion 3: Maintenance of ecosystem health and vitality
          • Criterion 4: Conservation and maintenance of soil and water resources
          • Criterion 5: Maintenance of forest contribution to global carbon cycles
          • Criterion 6: Maintenance and enhancement of long-term multiple socioeconomic benefits to meet the needs of societies
          • Criterion 7: Legal, institutional and economic framework for forest conservation and sustainable management
          • Maps and other graphics
          • Data
        • Australia's State of the Forests Report 2013
        • Australia's State of the Forests Report 2008
        • Australia's State of the Forests Report 2003
        • Australia's State of the Forests Report 1998
      • Mandates and drivers for Australia's State of the Forests Report
      • Benefits of producing Australia's State of the Forests Reports
    • Criteria and Indicators for reporting
      • Alignment of Australia's indicators with Montreal Process indicators
      • Review
    • National Forest Inventory
      • National Forest Inventory Steering Committee
    • Forests, land and Australia’s Indigenous peoples
    • Forest and wood products statistics
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      • Data by topic
        • Area of forest
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        • Australia's native forest types - data visualisation
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    • Australia's forests and forestry glossary

Australia’s Framework of Criteria and Indicators

​​Australia's Sustainable Forest Management Framework of Criteria and Indicators 2008 – Policy Guidelines [1.6MB] details the seven criteria and 44 indicators in the framework used for reporting on the state of Australia's forests. It includes the rationale for the inclusion of each indicator in the framework, within the relevant criterion. All such frameworks are developed on the premise that sustainable forest management is a process of continuous improvement.

This is Australia's second framework of criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management. The original framework was developed in 1998 and used in production of SOFR 2003. A major review of Australia's Sustainable Forest Management Framework of Criteria and Indicators was conducted during 2006, and led to the current set of Australia's indicators of sustainable forest management which closely align with the international Montréal Process set of indicators.

Forests are complex ecosystems that provide a wide an​​d dynamic array of environmental and socioeconomic benefits and services. The essential aim of sustainable forest management is to maintain the broad range of forest values in perpetuity. However, assessing progress towards this aim is difficult. Criteria and indicators are used to simplify the task by characterising the essential components of sustainable forest management. They are intended to provide a common understanding of what is meant by sustainable forest management and a common framework for describing, assessing and evaluating a country's progress towards sustainability at the national level.

Most methods of sustainability assessment follow a broadly similar approach involving an analytical hierarchy, in which information is organised so that each individual component contributes to the understanding of a larger theme or question (the 'criterion'). The individual components ('indicators') may then be examined in terms of their contribution to key sustainability measures. Australia's approach comprises the following criteria:

  • Criterion 1. Conservation of biological diversity
  • Criterion 2. Maintenance of productive capacity of forest ecosystems
  • Criterion 3. Maintenance of ecosystem health and vitality
  • Criterion 4. Conservation and maintenance of soil and water resources
  • Criterion 5. Maintenance of forest contribution to global carbon cycles
  • Criterion 6. Maintenance and enhancement of long-term multiple socioeconomic benefits to meet the needs of societies
  • Criterion 7. Legal, institutional and economic framework for forest conservation and sustainable management.

These criteria are the same as those developed by the international-level M​ont​réal Process Working Group on Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests, known as the Montréal Process Working Group, which was formed in 1994 by a number of countries with temperate and boreal forests. Members of the working group are Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, the Russian Federation, the United States of America and Uruguay; the M​​ontréal Process criteria​​ are therefore applied across 90% of the world's temperate and boreal forests. Australia accepted the criteria developed by the Montréal ​Process Working Group, but adapted the indicators to better suit the country's unique forests.

A list of the seven criteria and 44 indicators that form Australia's sustainable forest management framework is available in PDF and accessible MS Word​ formats.

Cover of Australia's framework of criteria and indicators for forest reporting

National reports based on this framework:​

Australia's State of the Forests Report 2018

Australia's State of the Forests Report 2013

Australia's State of the Forests Report 2008

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Page last updated: 29 September 2023

We acknowledge the continuous connection of First Nations Traditional Owners and Custodians to the lands, seas and waters of Australia. We recognise their care for and cultivation of Country. We pay respect to Elders past and present, and recognise their knowledge and contribution to the productivity, innovation and sustainability of Australia’s agriculture, fisheries and forestry industries.

Artwork: Protecting our Country, Growing our Future
© Amy Allerton, contemporary Aboriginal Artist of the Gumbaynggirr, Bundjalung and Gamilaroi nations.

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