World Forestry

This report, like the first State of the Forests Report in 1998, fulfils the obligation in the National Forest Policy Statement (1992) and the Ecologically Sustainable Development Strategy (1992) to provide a forest sustainability report to the Australian public every 5 years. Australia’s State of the Forests Report 2003 is structured on a nationally agreed framework based on the Montreal Process criteria and indicators. Seven broad criteria embrace the range of values the Australian community attaches to forests: biological diversity, productive capacity, ecosystem health, soil and water, carbon, socio-economic and management frameworks.

The Management Team of the National Forest Inventory, based in the Bureau of Rural Sciences, compiled the present report. The National Forest Inventory represents the forestry and conservation agencies of the Australian Government as well as all the States and Territories. Together, these agencies have compiled the most comprehensive factual information about forests currently available and presented it in a form that can be used primarily by the general public, but by specialists as well.

PDF version of the report: Australia's State of the Forests Report 2003

Australia's State of the Forests Report 1998 is also available.

This publication is no longer in print. To view a paper copy, please visit the National Library in Canberra, or your state library.

Australia’s State of the Forests Report 2008 is due for release in the first half of 2008.

Source: Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry