Australia’s Indigenous land and forest estate (2024) – Indigenous Forest Estate

Abstract Australia’s Indigenous land and forest estate (2024) is a continental spatial dataset of forest and non-forest land over which Indigenous peoples and communities have ownership, management or co-management, or other special rights. This layer displays the area of forest that is in the Indigenous estate, by separate Indigenous estate attributes. It was developed from multiple data sources, including national, state and territory datasets related to land in which there is an Indigenous interest. The Indigenous land dataset is then combined with forest cover information from the [Forests of Australia (2023)] dataset. The dataset was compiled by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) for the National Forest Inventory (NFI), a collaborative partnership between the Australian and state and territory governments. The role of the NFI is to collate, integrate and communicate information on Australia's forests. The NFI applies a national classification to state and territory data to allow seamless integration of these datasets. Multiple independent sources of external data are used to fill data gaps and improve the quality of final datasets. The following attributes are applied in this dataset: Indigenous owned: Freehold land or forest that is owned by Indigenous communities, or land and forest for which ownership is vested through other mechanisms. Indigenous managed: Land or forest that is managed by Indigenous communities. Indigenous co-managed: Land or forest that has formal, legally binding agreements in place to include input from Indigenous people in the process of developing and implementing a management plan. Other special rights: Land or forest subject to native title determinations, registered Indigenous Land Use Agreements and legislated special cultural use provisions. In this dataset, the attributes of Indigenous ownership, Indigenous management or co-management, and other special rights are applied separately. [Australia's Indigenous Forest Estate (2024)] Currency Date modified: 30 June 2023 Publication Date: 28 October 2024 Modification frequency: Every 5 years Data Extent Coordinate reference: GDA94 / Australian Albers Spatial Extent North: -8.0 South: -46.0 East: 168.0 West: 100.0 Source Information Data, Metadata, Maps and Interactive views are available from [Australia's Indigenous Land and Forest Estate (2024)], [Descriptive Metadata PDF]. The data was obtained from Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry - Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES). Lineage Statement The process for describing and reporting separately on each of the individual attributes of Indigenous ownership, Indigenous management or co management, or other special rights for Indigenous peoples and communities is described in [Jacobsen et al. (2020)]. The method and data in this data package represents the information on the Indigenous land estate by the above separate attributes in accordance with Jacobsen et al. (2020) and primarily uses data with information current between 2021 and 2023. Additional data previously sourced for the Indigenous estate dataset that informed Australia’s State of the Forests Report 2018 was also used in this compilation. The Indigenous land dataset is combined (intersected) with forest cover information from the [Forests of Australia (2023) dataset (ABARES 2023)]. The resulting output dataset provides information on the Indigenous estate over forest and non-forest land. Information used to develop the Australia’s Indigenous land and forest estate (2024) dataset was sourced from: * Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry * Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water * Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation * National Native Title Tribunal * NSW Land Registry Services * NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water * NT Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics * Queensland Department of Resources * Land Services SA * Tasmania Department of Natural Resources and Environment * Victoria Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action * WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions * WA Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage * WA Land Information Authority, trading as Landgate Note: The Digital Atlas of Australia downloaded a copy of the source data in November 2024. To ensure that it was suitable to be hosted through ArcGIS Image Server & Image Dedicated, this copy had RGB fields added to the attribute table to generate a colour map. Data Dictionary ────────┬─────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Field │Field type │Description ────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── VALUE │Numeric │Unique identifier for each unique combination of attribute field values. ────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── COUNT │Numeric │The number of cells that occur for a particular VALUE. For this dataset the cell size is 100 by 100 metres. The COUNT value is equivalent to the area in hectares. ────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── FOR_CAT │String (Text)│NFI forest category name. See ABARES Forests of Australia (2023)1 for further information. ────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── FOR_TYPE│String (Text)│NFI forest type name. See ABARES Forests of Australia (2023)1 for further information. ────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── IND_FDES│String (Text)│Indigenous estate land category combined (intersected) with the forest cover extent from the ABARES Forests of Australia (2023)1 dataset. Table 2 describes each Indigenous estate attribute. Shows the extent which is forest land only – blank/null values are non-forest land. ────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── STATE │String (Text)│State or territory in which the cell occurs. ────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── OVERLAP │Numeric │Binary code that describes whether the cell includes overlapping attributes within the total Indigenous estate, specifically where two or more of the fields for the four Indigenous attributes (IND_OWN, IND_MNG, IND_COMNG, IND_OSR). Code 0 = no overlap of Indigenous estate attributes; 1 = overlap of two or more Indigenous estate attributes. ────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── IND_DESC│String (Text)│Text description of the Indigenous estate attributes that apply to the cell. ────────┴─────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Contact Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), [info.ABARES@aff.gov.au].