Australia's Forest Policies
Australia has a well-established institutional framework to support the conservation and sustainable management of forests. Forest policy in Australia is developed and implemented at the national, state and territory levels. State and territory governments have primary responsibility for forest management.
What are governments doing?
The Australian, state and territory governments are all signatories to the 1992 National Forest Policy Statement. The NFPS provides the framework within which the governments can cooperatively achieve their vision for sustainable management of Australia's forests whilst ensuring that community expectations are met.
A key element of the approach adopted in the NFPS involved the negotiation of Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) between the Australian and some state governments. RFAs are 20-year plans for the conservation and sustainable management of Australia’s native forests; they are designed to provide certainty for forest-based industries, forest-dependent communities and conservation.
RFAs use a science-based methodology to determine forest allocation for different uses and forest management strategies, and are the result of substantial scientific study, consultation and negotiation covering a diverse range of interests.