The care and ongoing management of out native forests is our primary concern.
Established in 2003, we are a State-owned business managing the harvest, sale and regrowing of sustainable timber from Victorian State forests on behalf of the Victorian Government. We operate within designated areas of State forest that are managed by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP).
DELWP has custodial or ownership rights over Public Land in Victoria and is responsible for managing Victoria’s entire publicly-owned State forest estate. They are also responsible for regulating compliance of our activities in accordance with the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014.
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Victoria has about 7.39 million hectares of public land.
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More than 4.19 million hectares of Victoria’s total public land are dedicated conservation areas in the form of national parks and other conservation reserves.
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The remaining 3.2 million hectares is State forest that is managed in accordance with Victoria’s Forest Management Zoning Scheme (FMZ Scheme).
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Only 417,000 hectares is modelled as available and suitable for timber harvesting.
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Around 3000 hectares, or 0.04 per cent, of public land is harvested a year.
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About 94 per cent of Victorian native forests are in protected areas that cannot be harvested or are unsuitable.
To continue being a leader in sustainable forest management, we employee an evidence-based approach to our business using relevant, up-to-date research and are guided by best practice.
As a result our forest management continues to evolve and now incorporates an increased focus on the inter-relationships between the components of forest ecosystems, balancing ecological and social factors with responsible economic practices.
Whenever we harvest timber, we do so in accordance with relevant policies, procedures, strategies, agreements and legislation. Our planning process is extensive, with a particular focus on conservation values.
Further information relating to DELWP’s role in forest management can be found on their Forests and Reserves webpage.
Other forest management links: