ABSTRACT

It is time to move beyond the era of conflict and develop a new shared vision for the management of Australia’s public forests. We need more holistic approaches that encompass all forest values across the landscape, rather than the current approach of dividing public forest management up across different government agencies. More collaborative approaches will be required to galvanise the resources, skills and knowledge that enables this shift in shared governance. Recent bushfires in Australia have heightened concerns that the management of public forest lands has largely failed to ensure the health of forest ecosystems, build resilience, and secure a promised balance between economic, social and environmental values. Investment in efforts to adapt forest management to address climate change has been limited; and empowering and increasing the role of Indigenous Australians in forest management could be significantly improved. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to improve the resilience of regional communities to major shocks and stresses caused by factors that encompass market dynamics, supply-chain disruptions and natural disasters. Three key strategies are proposed to strengthen forest management in Australia: first, establishing new shared governance models that bring together government agencies with Indigenous Australians and actors from the private sector and civil society; second, extending active and adaptive management across forest landscapes that builds resilience in our forests, local communities and society; and third, integrating traditional knowledge with scientific evidence and innovative technologies to enhance forest management for improved resilience and other outcomes.

摘要

现在是超越冲突时代并为澳大利亚公共森林管理制定新的共同愿景的时候了。我们需要更全面的方法来涵盖整个景观中的所有森林价值，而不是目前将公共森林管理划分到不同政府机构的方法。需要更多的协作方法来激发资源、技能和知识，从而实现这种共享治理的转变。澳大利亚最近的丛林大火加剧了人们的担忧，即公共林地的管理在很大程度上未能确保森林生态系统的健康、建立复原力并确保经济、社会和环境价值之间的承诺平衡。对调整森林管理以应对气候变化的努力的投资有限；可以显着改善澳大利亚土著人在森林管理中的权能和作用。此外，COVID-19 大流行凸显了提高区域社区对由包括市场动态、供应链中断和自然灾害在内的因素引起的重大冲击和压力的抵御能力的必要性。为加强澳大利亚的森林管理提出了三项关键战略：首先，建立新的共享治理模式，将政府机构与澳大利亚原住民以及私营部门和民间社会的参与者联合起来；第二，在森林景观中扩展积极和适应性管理，在我们的森林、当地社区和社会中建立复原力；第三，