Eucalyptus trees are evergreen hardwoods (a few species in the north are deciduous, but for drought tolerance rather than over-wintering). Eucalypt forests have evolved over many thousands of years through a perpetual cycle of growth, fire, regeneration and regrowth. The flora and fauna in these fire dependent forests are robust and resilient and have adapted to depend on this harsh method of forest renewal for survival. Extensive use of fire by Australia's original inhabitants, Aboriginal people, had a significant and extensive impact on the development of these vegetation communities.

Approximately 1250 vertebrate species and 13600 species of higher plants are recorded as occurring in the forests of Australia. Australia's forests are unique in the world, with a high proportion of biota endemic to Australia.

Management of native forests has been a contentious issue in Australia since the 197o's. The National Forest Policy Statement (1992) made provision for a joint Federal and State government planning exercise, called a Comprehensive Regional Assessment (CRA). CRA's form a platform for Regional Forest Agreements (RFA), through a process of negotiation involving all major players. The intent of RFA's is to set out how forests of a region are to be managed and used for up to 20 years, and to establish a Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative (CAR) reserve system. RFA's have now been completed in most states, though they relate primarily to regions where woodchip export licenses apply. Conservation groups in many states are not happy with RFA outcomes to date.

Ownership
There are about 43.7 million hectares of native forest in Australia, and four main land tenures relating to these forests.

State forests (25%)
State Forests are owned and managed by State Governments for a multiple of uses, including wood production, water catchment protection, grazing, recreation and conservation. They are the mainstay of the native forest timber industry. 30 to 50% of this area is excluded from timber production.

National Parks (25%)
National Parks are owned and managed by State Governments. These are preserves, and are managed primarily for conservation and recreation. No timber is harvested.

Leasehold (10%)
Leaseholds are owned by State governments, but held in long term leases by farmers. These are typically not very productive forests, and although some timber is harvested, the primary land use is grazing.

Private Freehold (40%)
Private (Freehold) lands are owned by private individuals and companies. Management varies, but some is managed primarily for timber production, and there are extensive areas of privately owned plantation in some states (native forest only). However, most of this freehold is in Queensland, inland New South Wales and the Northern Territory, where a lot of the forest is not suitable for timber production. Hence the proportion of productive forest under freehold is much lower. Note that federal lands replace State ownership in NT and the Australian Capitol Territory, particularly in relation to leasehold and national parks, but these territories do not play a significant role in timber production.

Plantations
Plantations total about 1.23 million hectares, dominated by exotic softwoods (948,000 ha) such as Pinus radiata, but with the majority of new plantings being eucalypts (287,000 ha). Australia has set a goal of trebling its plantation estate by the year 2020 (to about 3 million ha). Most states have a policy of not clearing native forest for plantation establishment. The 2020 vision is a joint initiative of the plantation growing and processing industries and the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments. A report “Market Opportunities for Australia's Plantation Resource by 1999 intern - Katie Collins, is available from the Institute.

The Forest Industry
Plantation timber now exceeds timber from native forests in volume and value, and represents about two thirds of all forest products. The domestic housing market is the biggest influence on both native forest and plantation based industries at present.

Eucalypts are the mainstay of the native forest industry, with Cypress Pine (Callitris) being the main secondary species, and certainly the only significant native softwood harvested commercially. Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) is the next most significant species, but only relatively small volumes are harvested.

The Australian forest industry is generally located along the east coast and southern regions and forms one of the country's largest resource industries, directly employing about 85,000 people, though this has been declining in recent years. Wood based industries contribute about 1% of GDP to the Australian economy. Australia has an annual trade deficit in forest products of around $ 1.7 billion Australian.

New Business
Some Australian States (NSW and TAS) are now moving towards emissions trading. The State of NSW passed the World's first carbon rights legislation, enabling the carbon sequestered in planted forests to be treated as a separate legal entity from the land on which the forest grows and the timber rights attached to the trees. State Forests of NSW has now signed a letter of intent with the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to plant forests to sequester carbon, in order to offset carbon emissions. A substantial and ongoing plantation establishment program is planned.

Trading in carbon credits on the Sydney futures exchange should commence in mid 2000, whilst Bio-energy from forests is also attracting much interest.

More Information
The primary source of information for this page was the National Forest Inventory (1998) Australia's State of the Forests Report 1998. The full report is available through the Bureau of Rural Sciences
Australia & Bioenergy.

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