Forest area as a proportion of total land area

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. Updates of this indicator occur every 5 years.\r\nThe 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.\r\nNote: 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 after the Voluntary National Review with statistical annex is submitted in 2018. 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.