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National Indigenous Forestry Strategy
The Australian Government has developed a National Indigenous Forestry Strategy 
PDF [298kb] in consultation with Indigenous communities and forest industry stakeholders. The strategy was launched on 22 July 2005 by the former Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation.
See also:
- Supporting NIFS Snapshot PDF [1.9mb]
A key aim of NIFS is to encourage Indigenous participation in the forest industry by forming business partnerships with the forestry industry to provide long-term benefits to Indigenous communities, as well as to the forest and wood products industry. Initiatives with industry could be associated with forest plantations and timber processing. Other initiatives could involve cultural and eco tourism, bush tucker, traditional medicines bee keeping and other forest based ventures.
In September and November 2003 a series of eight workshops were held across Australia, including Manjimup and Moora in Western Australia, Mt Gambier in South Australia, Hobart Tasmania, Barmah in Victoria, Grafton in New South Wales, Cairns Queensland and the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory. These included broad representation from Indigenous communities as well as participants from the forest and wood products industry.
In March 2007 a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was entered into by several Australian Government departments, four National Forest Industry Associations, the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) and Indigenous Business Australia (IBA). The aim of the MOU is to promote collaboration in the development of sustainable training & employment opportunities for Indigenous people within forest industries. This includes establishing business enterprises and joint venture partnerships between Indigenous land owners and forest companies.
Parties to the MOU committed to identifying opportunities for employment, training and business opportunities in the forest industry. Activities will include capacity building through mentoring and skills exchange, tailoring assistance packages, and promoting Indigenous participation in sustainable forest management policy development.
Around 20 projects have been progressed in ACT, Tasmania, Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland since the launch of the strategy.
Projects funded by the Australian Government to date include:
- National Association of Forest Industries for the engagement of an Indigenous Employment Liaison Officer
- the establishment of a community nursery in North-West Tasmania
- a portable sawmill and associated equipment for forest plantation harvesting at Mossman in Northern Queensland
- the engagement of an Economic Development Officer over two years for an Indigenous ecotourism based organisation in Kuranda in North Queensland
- joint project with Private Forests North Queensland and Australian Forest Growers in north Queensland that resulted in three Indigenous forestry teams (12-14 people) being contracted under Operation Farm Clear to salvage timber for private forest growers following Cyclone Larry.
To support the National Indigenous Forest Strategy, the Bureau of Rural Sciences has developed the National Indigenous Forest Mapping website.
This site is designed for users to produce forest-related maps based on Australian indigenous areas. From that website you can:
- Find summary statistics on forest areas and socio-economic information for each Indigenous Coordination Centre (ICC) area.
- Make your own maps of forests for each state, or ICC area and save them to use in your own reports.
- Find out summary information on Australia's forest types and main species.
- Find many links to other websites for further information on forestry, soils and indigenous information.
