Australia Yearbook - 2001

Chapter 14—Environment 601
Management of Australia’s
forest and land resources
National parks and other
protected areas
Australia’s national parks are primarily the
responsibility of State and Territory
Governments. Australia has 498 national parks,
encompassing a total area of 25.8 million
hectares. National parks are only one part of
Australia’s protected area network. Other types of
protected areas include aboriginal sites, flora and
fauna reserves, scientific areas, historic sites, State
parks and wildlife sanctuaries. Protected areas are
defined internationally by The World
Conservation Union (formerly the International
Union for the Communication of Nature (IUCN))
as “Areas of land and/or sea especially dedicated
to the protection and maintenance of biological
diversity, and of natural and associated cultural
resources, and managed through legal or other
effective means”. The IUCN defines six categories
of reserve, and the area covered by all types of
conservation reserves (including national parks)
in Australia in 1999 was 57.3 million hectares,
representing 6.4% of the total land area. The
conservation reserve system does not represent
all ecosystems equally, with arid and semi-arid
environments, native grassland and wetlands
poorly represented when compared to other
types of ecosystems. See also the section Use of
national parks in Chapter 12, Culture and
recreation.
Forest conservation and
management
Forests in Australia cover about 157 million
hectares, which account for around 20% of land
use. Just over one million hectares of these are
plantations. Some 457 forest types are recognised
in Australia, reflecting their distribution over a
wide range of climatic and geographic
environments. These forest types fall into one of
eight groups: acacia, callitris, casuarina, eucalypt,
mangrove, melaleuca, rainforest and ‘other’ (table
14.31). Eucalypt forests cover the greatest area
and callitris the least.
14.31 AUSTRALIA’S EIGHT FOREST TYPES, Area
and Amount within Conservation Reserves
Conserved
Total area area Conserved
Forest type
’000 ha. ’000 ha.
%
Acacia 12 298 276 2.24
Melaleuca 4 093 424 10.35
Rainforest 3 583 812 22.66
Casuarina 1 052 39 3.71
Mangrove 1 045 231 22.11
Callitris 867 69 7.96
Other 8 435 770 9.13
Eucalypt 124 463 14 961 12.02
Total 155 835 17 580 11.28
Source: Adapted from National Forest Inventory 1997.
Forests are managed for a variety of purposes.
Conservation and wood production are two
objectives. Wood production is addressed in the
section Wood and paper products of Chapter 16,
Forestry and fishing. The area of forests in
conservation reserves is just over 17.5 million
hectares, or 11.3% of the total forest estate. The
proportions of different forest types in
conservation reserves vary greatly, with acacia
forests the most poorly represented and
rainforest the best (table 14.31). The amount of
forests in conservation reserves also varies
between States/Territories (table 14.32). The
geographic imbalance in the spread of
conservation reserves is also highlighted by the
fact that of Australia’s 80 biogeographic regions,
37 have less than 5% of their area in conservation
reserves, 12 have less than 1% and four have no
area in reserves (after CEDA 1997).
14.32 TENURE OF AUSTRALIA’S NATIVE FORESTS(a)
ACT NSW NT Qld SA Tas.
Tenure
ha. ha. ha. ha. ha. ha. ha. ha. ha.
Conservation reserves 93 3 060 2 709 2 870 1 252 523 2 710 4 364 17 580
Multiple-use forests 5 3 095 0 3 983 27 1 285 3 346 1 612 13 351
Leasehold land 13 5 966 20 236 23 996 1 866 0 0 14 025 66 103
Other Crown land 2 605 258 1 051 12 296 165 13 206 15 597
Private forests 7 8 046 11 187 17 111 2 327 801 1 038 1 502 42 018
Total native forests 120 20 787 35 385 49 056 5 499 2 904 7 285 34 800 155 835
(a) Column or row totals may not equal sum of components, due to rounding.
Source: Australia’s State of the Forest Report, 1998.
Vic.
WA
Australia