Forestry Concepts and Definitions

• Adaptive management is a systematic process for continually improving management policies and practices by learning from the outcomes of operations and ensuring that our systems and processes allow us to identify and respond to changing circumstances.

Crown timber land means any of the following:

• Land within a State forest or flora reserve,
• Crown land (whether or not held under a lease or licence from the Crown and whether or not included in a timber reserve),
• Land affected by a profit à prendre,
• But does not include –
  • any Crown land that is the subject of a prescribed Crown tenure if the subject land has an area of 2 hectares or less, or
  • any Crown land that is the subject of a tenure from the Crown that is not a prescribed Crown tenure.

ESFM principles are:

1. Maintaining forest values for future and present generations, including –
   • forest biological diversity, and
   • the productive capacity and sustainability of forest ecosystems, and
   • the health and vitality of native forest ecosystems, and
   • soil and water quality, and
   • the contribution of native forests to global geochemical cycles, and
   • the long term social and economic benefits of native forests, and
   • natural heritage values.
2. Ensuring public participation, provision of information, accountability and transparency in relation to the carrying out of forestry operations,
3. Providing incentives for voluntary compliance, capacity building and adoption of best-practice standards,
4. Applying best-available knowledge and adaptive management processes to deliver best-practice forest management,
5. Applying the precautionary principle (as referred to in section 6(2)(a) of the Protection of the Environment Administration Act 1991) in preventing environmental harm.

• Land tenure is the mechanism that declares the legal relationship between people and land. It describes who owns which land, and underpins the rights that exist and the activities that are permitted on that land.
• This includes Crown land, Leasehold forest, Multiple-use public forest, Nature conservation reserve, Other Crown land and Private forest.

Native forestry operations relate to:

• Work undertaken during forest establishment and/or management for purposes including forest protection, public recreation, research, catchment protection and wood production,
• Operational forest management activities related to wood production, and
• The planting of trees, the managing of trees before they are harvested, or the harvesting of forest products for commercial purposes, including any related land clearing, land preparation and regeneration (including burning), and transport operations.

• The New South Wales Forest Management Framework (PDF, 1591.39 KB) (the Framework) is a comprehensive system for delivering Ecologically sustainable forest management (ESFM) within the NSW forested estate.
• The Framework includes overarching policy and legislation, institutional and administrative arrangements, and associated planning and operational systems. It is complemented by adaptive management and a continual improvement process incorporating research findings and feedback processes associated with compliance and enforcement systems, stakeholder engagement and monitoring and review mechanisms.