Community engagement

Community forums

The program has committed to host community forums. This is an opportunity for people to learn more about the program, ask questions and provide feedback.

2022 Forums

Webinar 5 - Future forest scenarios

Webinar 5 - Recording, including panel discussion
Webinar 5 - Presentation
Webinar 5 - Questions and answers

The Forest Monitoring and Improvement Program engaged eminent experts in forest management, resilience, and future thinking to work with agency representatives in developing scenarios representing different plausible futures for NSW forests to 2050.

Professor Peter Kanowski and futurist Adjunct Professor Steve Cork presented their work including an outline of possible NSW forest futures scenarios. Dr. Peter Hairsine, Australian National University and Scott Matter, NSW Dept. Premier and Cabinet also joined the panel to discuss the work.

More information, including the scenarios report can be found here.

Webinar 4 - Baselines and trends for forests extent, condition and loss

Webinar 4 - Recording, including panel discussion
Webinar 4 - Presentation
Webinar 4 - Questions and answers

This webinar focused on the methods to measure forest extent, condition and loss of forests across the NSW Regional Forest Agreement regions between 1995 and 2019. The consortium of experts developed methods to measure historical trends in forest extent, initially focused on NSW Regional Forest Agreement regions. The methods leverage existing data from an extensive set of existing and historical forest monitoring programs. This project forms part of the wider NSW Forest Monitoring Improvement Program. The work was presented by the Data Scientist and Senior Geospatial Analyst Harmen Romeijn at Spatial Vision. Professor Patrick Baker also joined the panel to discuss the work.

Learn more about the work, including access to data here. Data for extended state-wide analysis, including data covering the data between 2019-2020 will also be soon available.

Webinar 3 - Baselines, drivers and trends for forest water catchments

Webinar 3 - Recording, including panel discussion
Webinar 3 - Presentation

At this webinar, Dr Danlu Gou from the University of Melbourne presented her research team’s work on baselines, drivers and trends for water quality and quantity for NSW forested catchments. A/Prof Angus Webb and Prof Andrew Western, both from the University of Melbourne also contributed to the work. Researchers applied new and novel statistical approaches to identify the flow responses to climate variability and impacts from catchment disturbance, including fire.

Dr Peter Hairsine, Australian National University joined the webinar panel to discuss the work.

Learn more about the work, including access to data here.

Webinar 2 - Carbon balance of NSW forests

Webinar 2 - Recording, including panel discussion
Webinar 2 - Presentation
Webinar 2 - Questions and answers

This webinar focused on the program’s recent work to quantify the carbon balance of NSW forests. The outcomes of this assessment outlined in the final report represents a significant advancement in understanding the trends in forest carbon across NSW in the last 30 years.

The work was undertaken by the Commission on behalf of the NSW Forest Monitoring Steering Committee. The analysis was undertaken by a team from The Mullion Group, NSW Department of Primary Industries and CSIRO. During the webinar the lead researchers, including Geoff Roberts and Dr Fabiano Ximenes presented findings and insights. Professor Patrick Baker, University of Melbourne joined a panel to discuss the work.

Note: This webinar contains research and commentary on forest biomass conducted by Dr Fabiano Ximenes, NSW Department Primary Industries. This research was not funded by the NSW Forest Monitoring and Improvement Program, nor undertaken by the Commission.

Webinar 1 - Baselines, drivers and trends for species occupancy and distribution

Webinar 1 - Recording, including panel discussion
Webinar 1 - Presentation
Webinar 1 - Questions and answers

Prof. Nick Reid, Dr. Rod Kavanagh and Dr. Brad Law presented their recent work to develop baselines, drivers and trends for species occupancy and distribution in forests across NSW Regional Forest Agreement regions. Prof. Phil Gibbons joined the researchers on the panel to discuss the work.

This work was commissioned by the Forest Monitoring Steering Committee and undertaken by a team of scientists from leading universities, NSW agencies and the private sector.

Recognised as the largest and most significant project of this type in the history of NSW forest management, the final report is a benchmark in terms of data collation, methodological approach and outcomes.

2020 Forums

Webinar 2 - Coastal IFOA monitoring program

Webinar 2 - Video
Webinar 2 - Questions and answers
Webinar 2 - Summary

The Commission hosted a webinar in November 2020 with a panel of members from the NSW Forest Monitoring Steering Committee to update the community on the coastal IFOA monitoring program. The program now has detailed monitoring plans in place for forest health, biodiversity, water quality and wood supply. A research and evaluation program is also in place.

The webinar video is available above.

More detail about the Coastal IFOA Monitoring Program is available here.

Webinar 1 - Data driven forest management

Webinar 1 - Video
Webinar 1 - Questions and answers
Webinar 1 - Summary

The Commission hosted a webinar in October 2020 with a panel of members from the NSW Forest Monitoring Steering Committee. The program has now invested over $2.5 million with 20 project partners. The webinar provided an overview of the projects and other elements of the program. The panel also answered stakeholder questions.

The webinar video, and the questions and answers are available above.