World Forestry

In 1992, the Australian Government and state and territory governments issued a National Forest Policy Statement, which set out a vision and goals, objectives and policies for Australia's forests and committed governments to prepare a national State of the Forests Report (SOFR) every five years.

This is the third report on the state of Australia's forests. Its purpose is to keep the public informed about Australia's forests, to show how they might be changing, and to indicate positive and negative trends. It also helps Australia to report the state of its forests to the world.

In this report, 7 criteria and 44 indicators provide a framework and methodology for describing and evaluating progress towards forest sustainability at the national level. The criteria are:

• 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.

• Australia's State of the Forests Report 2008 Executive Summary
• Australia's State of the Forests Report 2008 [pdf 10.7MB]
• Order a copy of Australia's State of the Forests Report 2008