The size of Australia’s forests grew by a little over 0.5 percent in the five years to 2021.
In its latest report, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) found there were 134 million hectares of forest across the country.
ABARES Executive Director Dr Jared Greenville said the five-yearly State of the Forests Report covered all areas of Australia’s forests, including public and private forests, forests managed for production and forests managed for conservation, and the full range of social, economic and environmental values.
Dr Greenville said in 2021 Australia’s forest area was 134 million hectares and had increased by 750 ,000 hectares over the previous five years.
He said most of Australia’s forests were privately managed with 90.8 million hectares, or 68 percent of forests, on leasehold or privately owned tenures.
“The Indigenous forest estate is 80 million hectares, representing 60 percent of Australia’s total forest area. This is an increase of 10 million hectares since 2018.
“In 2022-23, the value of logs harvested from native forests and commercial plantations was $2.4 billion, and the sector employed 51,123 workers in 2021, only slightly down compared to 2016.”
Dr Greenville said over the period 2016-17 to 2020-21, the average annual area of harvest from multiple-use native forest was 77,000 hectares, or about 0.06 percent of Australia’s total area of native forest.
“A total of 49 million hectares (37 percent) of Australia’s native forest is on land protected for biodiversity conservation, or where biodiversity conservation is a specified management intent.
“Carbon stocks in Australia’s forests increased slightly to 19,417 million tonnes, during the period 2016 to 2021. In addition, in 2021, 167 million tonnes of carbon was present in harvested wood products, a 5 percent increase since 2016.”
Read the full report: Australia’s State of the Forests Report: Synthesis 2023
