As the world gathers in Cali, Colombia, for COP16, where it will discuss global governments’ commitment to achieving 30 by 30 – that is, a pledge to protect 30% of the earth’s land and oceans by 2030, Australia has emerged as an unexpected leader in the push to drive reforestation.
That is according to Australia’s State of the Forests report, prepared by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) and published today. The report reveals that 750,000 hectares of forests were added to the land mass over the past five years alone.
Launched by Dr Jared Greenville, ABARES Executive Director, the new report covers all areas of Australia’s forests—public and private forests, forests managed for production and conservation, and forests with the full range of social, economic, and environmental values.
“Gaining a better understanding of our forests is crucial to ensuring they are managed sustainably,” Dr Greenville said. “That’s why this report is so important—it provides the information that Australia’s policymakers and planners need to plan continued growth into the future.”
“In 2021, Australia’s forest area was 134 million hectares and has increased by 750 thousand hectares over the previous 5 years,” Dr Greenville said. “Carbon stocks in Australia’s forests increased slightly to 19,417 million tonnes from 2016 to 2021. In addition, in 2021, 167 million tonnes of carbon was present in harvested wood products, a 5% increase since 2016.”
Dr Greenville said that most of Australia’s forests are privately managed, with 90.8 million hectares, or 68% of Australia’s forests, on leasehold or privately owned tenures. Interestingly, “the Indigenous forest estate is 80 million hectares, representing 60% of Australia’s total forest area,” he said, “increase of 10 million hectares since 2018.”
“In 2022-23, the value of logs harvested from native forests and commercial plantations was $2.4 billion, and the sector employed 51,123 workers in 2021, only slightly down compared to 2016.”
“Over the period 2016-17 to 2020-21, the average annual area of harvest from the multiple-use native forest was 77 thousand hectares or about 0.06% of Australia’s total area of native forest.”
Dr Jared Greenville, ABARES Executive Director discussing the 2024 Australian State of the Forests report.
According to Dr Greenville, “49 million hectares (37%) of Australia’s native forest is on land protected for biodiversity conservation, or where biodiversity conservation is a specified management intent.”
“The most common threats to nationally listed forest-dwelling fauna and flora include land-use change and/or forest loss; unsuitable fire regimes; predation and competition by introduced fauna and flora; and small or localised populations.” Meanwhile, “forestry operations were the least prevalent of the 11 specified threat categories for listed forest-dwelling fauna and flora.”
Deforestation is now surging across the world.
Australia’s strong levels of reforestation come at a time when global deforestation continues to ‘roar’ around the world. Earlier this month, Wood Central reported that more than 6.4 million hectares of forest were lost to deforestation last year, with Australia one of the few countries on track to achieve zero deforestation by the end of 2030.
That is, according to the 2024 Forest Declaration Assessment, which reports the rate of forest degradation worldwide is immense: “globally, an area twice the size of Germany fell from a higher to a lower ecological integrity class in 2022.”
In July, Wood Central revealed that Australia, home to the world’s seventh-largest forest area, has recorded the second-highest rate of reforestation, an increase of 4.4 million hectares of forest area for the decade from 2010 to 2020, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) State of the World’s Forests report.
At the time, the Wood Central Publisher spoke to key figures connected to Australian forestry who said forest certification, namely the introduction of the Australian Forestry Standard (now known as Responsible Wood) and FSC, has been among the main drivers of the push towards reforestation.
“Almost 100% of Australia’s working forests are certified under the PEFC (Responsible Wood) or FSC forest certification schemes,” the insider said. “The vast majority of Australia’s plantation forests are dual certified to both forest certification schemes.”
Australian Forestry Standard was quickly followed by FSC certification, which was introduced into the Australian marketplace, with more than 20 million hectares of Australian forests now covered by both certification schemes.
“Now Australia has one of the highest rates of certification anywhere in the world, with 8% of the world’s certified forest area being Australian forests.”
Under both schemes, certified companies must commit to reforestation after harvest, ensuring extensive reforestation in native and plantation forests: “This is regulated through a forest management plan, which is assessed by an independent auditor, who assesses the grower annually and in line with seasonal variation.”
- To learn more about the push to end deforestation by 2030, and the push to protect 30% of the earth’s land and seas, click here and here.