1.1a.ii Forest area by tenure (2023) - Supporting information

The method used to determine tenure recognises state and territory land title registers as the formal legal sources of tenure information, specifies the sourcing of data from the most accurate spatial representations of these land registers, and provides transparent translation of the range of jurisdictional tenure classes into the six national tenure classes (see Jacobsen et al. 2019). This method was applied to assemble both the Tenure of Australia’s forests (2018) spatial dataset and the current update to the Tenure of Australia’s forests (2023) dataset.

State and territory tenure datasets used for the 2018 spatial compilation were updated for the 2023 spatial compilation. In addition, newly available tenure information was sourced for the entire state of South Australia, and large parts of Western Australia, providing coverage of known gaps in the national tenure dataset.

National land tenure information from PSMA Australia Limited (operating as Geoscape Australia) and previous NFI national tenure compilations were used to in fill remaining gaps in coverage. Land managed by the Department of Defence occurs across multiple tenures, and information from the Department of Defence was not used in this most recent spatial compilation.

The tenure area data reported this 2023 update of tenure for Australia’s State of the Forests Report (SOFR) differ from the tenure area data reported in Australia’s State of the Forests Report 2018. The areas reported in this 2023 update are drawn from the Tenure of Australia’s forests (2023) dataset, whereas the areas reported in Australia’s State of the Forests Report 2018 were drawn from the Tenure of Australia’s forests (2018) dataset. These differences have a variety of causes, of which only some are actual change in tenure over time. The main driver of differences is the increased accuracy of the datasets now used.

Forest on Private and Leasehold tenure

The total area of native forest on Private tenure reported here is 600 thousand hectares more than reported in SOFR 2018. This is primarily due the transfer of forest on Leasehold tenure to Private tenure; and the transfer of national parks to Indigenous freehold (Private) tenure (noting that these areas continue to be managed as conservation reserves).

The total area of native forest on Leasehold tenure reported here is 680 thousand hectares more than reported in SOFR 2018. This is largely due to more accurate input data for Western Australia.

Forest on Nature conservation reserve tenure

The area of native forest on Nature conservation reserve tenure reported here is 318 thousand hectares more than reported in SOFR 2018. This is due to a combination of more accurate tenure data for Western Australia, and transfer of land on other tenures to conservation reserves in New South Wales and Victoria.

Forest on Multiple-use public forest tenure

The area of native forest on Multiple-use public forest tenure reported here is 155 thousand hectares more than reported in SOFR 2018. In Victoria, an additional 110 thousand hectares of Multiple-use public forest results from using more accurate Victorian tenure information (land previously classed as Other Crown land is now classified as Multiple-use public forest). Increases of 67 thousand and 33 thousand hectares of Multiple-use public forest in Queensland and Tasmania, respectively, were driven by an increase in forest area reported on this tenure class. There was a decrease of 50 thousand hectares in Western Australia resulting from the use of more accurate tenure information.

Forest on Other Crown land tenure and Unresolved tenure

The area of native forest on Other Crown land tenure reported here is 1.3 million hectares less than reported in SOFR 2018. This is due to more accurate tenure data for Western Australia, and the transfer of unallocated Crown land to freehold tenure across multiple states.

The area of forest on Unresolved tenure reported here is 587 thousand hectares less than reported in SOFR 2018. This is due to improved attribution and spatial completeness of input tenure datasets.

Jacobsen R, Mutendeudzi M, Howell CI, Read SM (2019). Development of a national tenure dataset for reporting the tenure of Australia’s forests, ABARES technical report, Canberra, August. CC BY 4.0. doi.org/10.25814/5d5e34e2d3dcc