Farm & Agroforestry
Forestry Australia has a Farm and Agroforestry Committee (a.k.a Forest Growers Committee) that represents the interests of its members who are landowners engaged in planting and managing trees for a wide range of purposes including biodiversity conservation, landscape amenity and restoration, timber production and carbon sequestration. Forestry Australia’s farm and agroforestry membership spans all states and territories, from temperate southern environments to the wet tropics. We promote good science; evidence-based decision making; practical and effective solutions, and holistic and balanced outcomes for our rural landscapes.
Special Interest Group (SIG) meetings
Forestry Australia provides its farm and agroforestry membership with opportunities to engage through Farm forestry, agroforestry and small-scale grower Special Interest Group (SIG) meetings.
The purpose of the Farm forestry, agroforestry and small-scale grower SIG meetings is to facilitate information exchange, connection, and discussion between agroforesters, farm foresters, small private forest growers as well as the agencies and organisations working in this space. The Grower SIG meetings provide a platform for dialogue, information on various programs, exchange of experiences, approaches, and resources.
About Farm and agroforestry
Farm forestry is the commitment of resources by farmers, alone or in partnerships, towards the establishment or management of forests on their land.
Most definitions of farm forestry and agroforestry focus on trees’ function, location or arrangement, and emphasise the expected benefits of farm forestry/agroforestry. It is not the scale, the planting pattern, the species or the purpose of a forest that makes it a “farm forest” or “agroforest”. It is the ownership. Not just ownership of the land or the trees, but ownership of the decision to do it and how it is done. Farm forestry and agroforestry are simply the result of a farmer’s decision to practice forestry. What it looks like and how it performs will depend on interests, resources and opportunities facing the farmers involved and their ability to design and manage their forests effectively.
Farm forestry and agroforestry are about choice—farmers choosing to commit their resources to the development and management of forests for, amongst other things, commercial return. Farmers may establish and manage their forests for any mix of the benefits that forests can provide. They may place an emphasis on a single outcome such as timber production or biodiversity, or they may seek to balance a range of benefits in a multipurpose planting. Their priorities may also vary over the farm or change over time. For example, a forest initially established or managed for wildlife or land protection might later be harvested for timber or valued for its beauty. Forests on farms may increase agricultural production or displace it. They might be sustainable and improve economic, social and environmental capital or they might deplete these assets.
Growers Reserve Funding
Projects to support farm forestry and agroforestry in Australia
Forestry Australia sought proposals for projects that would support farm forestry and agroforestry in Australia. The funding was made available from Forestry Australia’s Grower Reserve Fund, with up to $ 10,000 available per project.
Applications for projects were considered according to the following principles:
- clearly promoting the interests of private growers and advocating for improvements in legislation, policy, codes of practice and other instruments that affect tree growing and private forestry.
- encouraging interaction and communication between members and the development of expanded networks.
- enabling growth in grower membership of Forestry Australia.
- being accessible to a broad range of members, while recognising the need to cater for diversity in regional settings and grower interests throughout Australia.
- providing longevity of benefit to members by making information available through stable and secure platforms such as websites, searchable databases and bibliographies.
- Opportunities to maintain and grow the fund will be pursued to the extent that resources allow and where these are consistent with the principles of Forestry Australia.
Please note: The Grower Reserve Fund will generally not be used to cover expenses that could reasonably be expected to be met from other sources – e.g. catering or food costs for meetings and events that can be recouped via an event cover charge.
The projects had to meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Benefit Forestry Australia’s forest grower members
- To provide resources, produce educational information or undertake projects to support forest growing.
- To support Forestry Australia members and branches to conduct field days, mini-conferences, seminars on forest growing.
- To increase the number of grower members of Forestry Australia and,
- To support and encourage Australians to grow more trees.
Submissions closed: COB Friday 21 April 2023
Click HERE for more information including selection criteria and proposal inclusions.
Pruned Certification Scheme
Australian Forest Growers managed the Pruned Stand Certification (PSC) which provided growers with an assessment and certification system that quantified the quality of pruned logs in a stand, so that a premium payment could be received for the high value logs.
Forestry Australia continues to maintain these records but no longer offers the scheme. If you require information or access to records, contact admin@forestry.org.au