DOI: 10.25814/5c592792c780e
title: Tenure of Australia's Forests (2018)

description: Tenure of Australia's forests (2018) is a continental dataset of tenure classified into national forest tenure classes reported by the National Forest Inventory (NFI) – a collaborative partnership between the Australian and state and territory governments, whose role is to collate, integrate and communicate information on Australia's forests. The dataset was assembled for the Australia's State of the Forests Report 2018 (SOFR 2018) and combines land tenure information with forest cover information sourced from the Forests of Australia (2018) dataset also reported in SOFR 2018. Land tenure information was obtained from multiple sources, with national tenure information obtained from the Public Sector Mapping Agency (PSMA) CadLite and Land Tenure dataset and Department of Defence estate dataset, and state and territory tenure information obtained from each jurisdiction. Tenure information was evaluated, assessed and assembled into six national land tenure classes used to categorise land in the NFI: Leasehold forest, Multiple use-public forest, Nature conservation reserves, Other Crown land, Private forest, and Unresolved tenure. The Tenure of Australia's forests (2018) was produced by combining the assembled land tenure dataset with forest cover information identified by the Multiple Lines of Evidence (MLE) approach used to develop the Forests of Australia (2018) dataset.
description: Lineage document describing the development of the Tenure of Australia’s forests (2018) dataset for publication in the Australia’s State of the Forests Report 2018. Tenure of Australia’s forests (2018) is a continental spatial dataset of tenure information classified into national forest tenure classes reported by the National Forest Inventory (NFI). This dataset was assembled for the Australia’s State of the Forests Report 2018 (SOFR 2018) and reported in Indicator 1.1a – Area of forest by type and tenure. Tenure of Australia’s forests (2018) was developed by evaluating and combining multiple national, and state and territory land tenure data sources with forest cover data from the Forests of Australia (2018) dataset. Following identification of small areas of incorrect tenure information in the Tenure of Australia’s forests (2013) dataset multiple national, and state and territory land tenure and estate spatial datasets were obtained for the development of the Tenure of Australia’s forests (2018) dataset. National datasets included: • Public Sector Mapping Agency (PSMA) CadLite and Land Tenure datasets (May 2016 release) • Department of Defence estate (as at June 2016) • NFI Tenure of Australia’s forests (2013) v2.0 The PSMA CadLite and Land Tenure datasets provided near-complete coverage of land tenure data for all states and territories. The Department of Defence dataset covered the Defence estate only. Further information on the NFI’s Tenure of Australia’s forests (2013) v2.0 can be found at: http://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/forestsaustralia/publications/display?url=http://143.188.17.20/anrdl/DAFFService/display.php?fid=pb_fta13g9abfs20160525_11a.xml Complete state and territory land tenure spatial datasets were supplied for SOFR 2018 by the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria, specifically: • ACT Land tenure dataset prepared for SOFR 2018 • NSW Digital Cadastre Database dataset • NT Digital Cadastre dataset • Qld Digital Cadastre Database dataset • Tas. Copy of land tenure dataset prepared for State of the Forests Tasmania 2017 • Vic. Copy of land tenure dataset prepared for Victoria’s State of the Forests Report 2013 Land tenure spatial data supplied by Western Australia provided partial coverage of WA, with the PSMA Land Tenure dataset used to fill the remaining area to provide complete coverage of that state. Land tenure information for South Australia was primarily derived from the PSMA Land Tenure dataset with an area of insufficient data covered by a supplementary SA state dataset of conservation reserves under government control. All input datasets were converted to 100 metre cell size rasters is Esri grid format, aligning with relevant standard NFI state or territory masks (also known as NFI snap grids), in Albers projection. Where the input dataset was in polygon format, the Polygon to Raster tool was used to convert the polygon dataset to raster format, using the Maximum Combined Area option. Each data source was evaluated and assessed against measures of accuracy and fitness for purpose for reporting tenure of forest land. The specific tenure classification schemas for each data source was translated into the six national land tenure classes used to categorise land in the NFI: • Leasehold forest: Crown land held under leasehold title and generally privately managed. • Multiple-use public forest: publicly-owned state forest, timber reserves and other land managed for forest values such as wood harvesting, recreation and environmental protection. • Nature conservation reserve: publicly owned land formally reserved for environmental protection, conservation and recreation. Includes national parks, nature reserves and conservation areas. • Other Crown land: Crown land reserves for a variety of purposes including water supply, scientific research, mining, and use by the defence forces. • Private forest: land held under freehold title and private ownership, and generally privately managed. This class also includes land with special conditions attached for designated Indigenous communities. • Unresolved tenure: land where data are insufficient to determine tenure/ownership status. Note: The land tenure dataset prepared and supplied by the ACT included translations to the NFI national forest tenure classes. For each jurisdiction the input datasets were layered (ordered) based on the overall evaluation of accuracy/fitness for reporting tenure of forest land. Where data coverage was incomplete in all three sourced datasets gaps were filled using land tenure data from the Tenure of Australia’s forests (2013) v2.0 dataset. The dataset layering priority, from highest to lowest: 1. Department of Defence estate data 2. State and territory land tenure data 3. PSMA Land Tenure data 4. NFI Tenure of Australia’s forests (2013) v2.0 Any remaining area with no data was allocated as ‘Unresolved tenure’. The output nation-wide land tenure dataset was then combined (intersected) with the forest cover information identified by the Multiple Lines of Evidence (MLE) approach used to develop the Forests of Australia (2018) dataset.