Policies & Programs
Victoria
The Department of Sustainability and Environment is responsible for looking after Victoria's forests. It manages Victoria's 3.4 million hectares of State forest, and provides policy guidance for a further 3.7 million hectares of forested parks and reserves. It also gives conservation guidance and incentives to private landholders who manage 1.2 million hectares of largely native forest and 360,000 hectares of plantation. State forests are managed to balance a variety of uses. These values include conserving flora and fauna, protecting water catchments and water supply, providing timber for sustainable forestry, protecting landscape, archaeological and historic values, and providing recreational and educational opportunities.
Parks Victoria operates as the provider of services to the Department of Sustainability and Environment and manages National, State and Wilderness parks on behalf of the State. Parks Victoria is also the custodian of a diverse estate of significant parks in Victoria, including 39 national parks, 13 marine national parks, 11 marine sanctuaries, 3 wilderness parks, 30 state parks, 37 metropolitan parks, 63 regional and reservoir parks, 2,785 natural features reserves and conservation reserves, 8,400 Aboriginal Affairs Victoria registered Indigenous cultural heritage sites/places and 2,500 (non-Indigenous) historic places. These assets total approximately 4.1 million hectares and represent 17% of Victoria’s land area.
View maps, facts and case studies on forests in Victoria.
Programs
Victoria has five Regional Forest Agreements (RFA), which cover more than 13 million hectares of the State and include the regions of East Gippsland, Central Highlands, North East Victoria, Gippsland and West Victoria.
Victoria's timber industry underwent significant restructuring when the RFA process began. The Commonwealth and Victorian governments provided a package of $42.6 million under the Commonwealth-Victorian Hardwood Timber Industry Development and Restructuring Program to help businesses take advantage of RFA certainty and adjust to changes in resource availability.
In 2002, the Victorian Government announced the Our Forests Our Future policy initiative to ensure the sustainable future of Victoria's native forests and the timber industry communities they support. The major components of the initiative include: a 31% reduction in logging across the State; an $80 million assistance package, new legislation to ensure resource security; independent auditing of forests; and the establishment of a new commercial entity, VicForests. This organisation manages the commercial forestry objectives of the state, the policy and regulatory functions of Government and ensures that the logging industry is managed efficiently.
Links to forest related programs and organisations in Victoria, including government, industry, research, education and community sites.
