This is a superseded dataset, the most recent Australia's Indigenous land and forest estate spatial dataset can be found at: https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/forestsaustralia/forest-data-maps-and-tools/spatial-data/indigenous-land-and-forest.
Australia's Indigenous forest estate (2013) is a continental dataset which identifies forested and non-forested land over which Indigenous Australians have legislated use and rights. The Indigenous use and rights information was sourced from multiple Indigenous land ownership, land management and land rights datasets from relevant Australian, state and territory government agencies. The forest cover (National Forest Inventory forest types) information was derived from the Forests of Australia (2013) dataset. The dataset provides both Indigenous use and rights and forest type information for forested lands and Indigenous use and rights information only for non-forested lands.
The dataset was compiled by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) for use in the National Indigenous Forestry Strategy (NIFS) and Australia's State of the Forests Report 2013 (SOFR). The dataset, compiled for use at the national scale, identifies four nationally consistent Indigenous estate categories which indicate the degree of management control that Indigenous people have over both forested and non-forested land. The categories are:
1. Indigenous owned and managed;
2. Indigenous managed;
3. Indigenous co-managed; and
4. Other Special rights.
These categories align with the reporting requirements of the SOFR and meet the requirements of the data suppliers.
