Forest area as a proportion of total land area
16.22 per cent
National Metadata
This table provides metadata for the actual indicator available from Australia closest to the corresponding global SDG indicator. Please note that even when the global SDG indicator is fully available from Australian statistics, this table should be consulted for information on national methodology and other Australia-specific metadata information.
Forest area is sourced from the same Australian publication as that used to inform Australia’s Country Report to the UN FAO Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRA). The FRA will be the ongoing mechanism by which this indicator will be regularly populated.
The established Australian forest cover definition used for reporting (no minimum extent, > 2 m height, > 20% canopy cover, irrespective of agricultural usage) differs from the UN methodology, however it is accepted by the UN FAO as suitable to the Australian environmental context.
Note: The UN FAO Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRA) will be the ongoing mechanism by which SDG indicators 15.1.1 and 15.2.1 will be populated. ABARES prepares Australia’s Country Report to the five-yearly FRA, with the next FRA due for release in 2020. Australia’s Country Report is underpinned by data published in the five-yearly series Australia’s State of the Forests Reports published by ABARES and prepared in collaboration with state and territory governments.
Forest area as a proportion of total land area
Percentage
The development of the national forest cover spatial dataset is undertaken by Australia’s National Forest Inventory, ABARES, in collaboration with all state and territory governments using a multiple-lines-of-evidence analyses.
The source document for this response is:
Montréal Process Implementation Group for Australia and National Forest Inventory Steering Committee, 2013, Australia’s State of the Forests Report 2013, ABARES, Canberra.
Land area is the official Australian Government figure published by Geosciences Australia.
Further information is available on the Forests Australia website: http://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/forestsaustralia/publications/display?url=http://143.188.17.20/anrdl/DAFFService/display.php?fid=pb_iafaed9abfs20131119_11a.xml
Global Metadata
This table provides information on metadata for SDG indicators as defined by the UN Statistical Commission. Complete global metadata is provided by the UN Statistics Division.
Forest area as a proportion of total land area
Sources
National Forest Inventory, ABARES
Other
No other information for this indicator
Historic
No historic information for this indicator
