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What is the NFI?
Introduction
The National Forest Inventory (NFI) collects and communicates information on Australia's forests. It aims to provide a single authoritative source of data at the national level.
The NFI is a partnership between the Commonwealth and all State and Territory governments. The Commonwealth provides funding for the NFI's three staff and for core activities, including the collection of data and the dissemination of value-added information. The States and Territories undertake on-the-ground collection of forest data.
The arrangement is mutually beneficial. The new and updated forest information produced by the NFI is used at regional, State and Territory, national and international levels by governments, non-government organisations and industry. It plays a particularly important role in the development of a national policy and investment framework.
The NFI is guided by a Steering Committee consisting of Commonwealth, State and Territory representatives and is coordinated and administered by a small management team. It is based in Canberra at the Bureau of Rural Sciences, a research bureau of the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry - Australia.Within the Bureau of Rural Sciences, the National Forest Inventory is located within, and works closely with members of, the Forests and Vegetation Sciences Program.
Why was it established?
The concept of a National Forest Inventory arose in the 1980s after Commonwealth, State and Territory governments recognised that accurate information was essential if competing demands on the nation's forests were to be reconciled.
The NFI was established in November 1988. In 1992, its role was endorsed in the National Forest Policy Statement, signed by all State and Territory governments and the Commonwealth. In 1997, the NFI was renewed by a Commonwealth commitment to funding over four years through the National Land and Water Resources Audit, part of the Natural Heritage Trust.
What is the function of the NFI?
Information about Australia's forests is collected by many different organisations, including Commonwealth, State and Territory land management agencies and private companies. The scale at which such information is collected and the methodology used often differ between agencies, the tenure of land and the purpose of collection.
The role of the NFI is to add value to these disparate datasets by assembling and standardising them so that they can be combined. In this way, we are able to develop an overview of the nation's forests and to make direct comparisons within and between States and Territories. The NFI is also involved in the development of protocols to promote nationally consistent data collection and data management standards.
Data produced by the NFI are used by many different organisations and individuals, including non-government organisations, forest growers, wood processors, consultants, State and Commonwealth agencies, and investors.