Who is responsible for the management of Australias forests?
State and Territory governments have primary responsibility for forest management, including public and private forests. This is in recognition of the constitutional responsibility of the States for land use decisions and their ownership of large areas of forests. The Commonwealth Government’s direct involvement in forests is limited largely to the approval of woodchip export licences. Responsibility for this lies with the Minister for Resources. 2 What is the National Forest Policy Statement (NFPS)? The National Forest Policy Statement (NFPS) sets out broad conservation and industry goals for the management of Australia’s forests agreed between Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments. Under the NFPS, Governments agreed to a framework and process for carrying out comprehensive assessments of the economic, social, environmental and heritage values of forest regions. Once completed, Comprehensive Regional Assessments (CRAs) will provide governments with the information required to
