PIRSA Forestry's Role

PIRSA Forestry supports programs and activities that support the protection and enhancement of biodiversity and heritage values within forest industries including:

• Administering the management of biodiversity and heritage programs associated with the State’s forest reserves.

• Leading a program to establish biodiversity corridors to connect remnant patches of native vegetation in the South East.  Learn more here - Biodiversity Corridors

• Providing advice and participating in research programs related to the effective management of biodiversity and heritage values.

• Working with relevant agencies, industry and community-based committees. 

Biodiversity and Plantations

In most situations, plantations occur as part of a mosaic of land use types across a landscape. Other types can include native forest, watercourses, wetlands, pasture, cropping, vineyards as well as roads, buildings and towns. Plantations can provide habitat, shelter and food for a range of native species that may not be available from cleared agricultural land.

The conservation of biodiversity is being increasingly recognised as a key part of the management of existing plantations and the establishment of new ones. Best practice techniques include:

• Retaining and protecting native forest remnants and wetlands within plantation landscapes to provide important habitat for a wide range of species such as birds, mammals and reptiles
• Retaining and protecting native vegetation along watercourses and ridgelines as these areas can be valuable dispersal routes for some species
• Actively managing pest animals and plants within plantations and nearby vegetation to reduce competition pressure and predation upon native species
• Establishing corridors between native vegetation remnants to provide shelter, food and protection from predators by imitating the structure and diversity of native vegetation
• Ensuring activities within plantations do not unduly affect native species including those in nearby native vegetation  

Native Forest Reserves

More than 24,000 hectares of remnant native vegetation are protected as Native Forest Reserves. These are managed for native flora and fauna conservation and are no longer cut for timber.  They protect valuable areas of tall eucalypt forest and woodland, as well as wetland environments. 

Learn more here - Native Forest Reserves

National and Conservation Parks

More than 4 million hectares of South Australia’s forests are contained within National or Conservation Parks (NPs and CPs) and managed by the Department for Environment and Heritage. These include large outback parks such as Flinders Ranges NP, Gawler Ranges NP and Ngarkat CP. Many parks in higher rainfall areas are also forested including those at Belair, Cleland and Deep Creek. These contain taller forests often dominated by Manna gum (Eucalyptus viminalis), SA blue gum (E. leucoxylon) and Messmate Stringybark (E. obliqua).

Learn more here - National and Conservation Parks 

Other Native Forests

Significant areas of native forests also occur on other land tenures including:

• Leasehold land (mainly pastoral areas) - 5.2 million hectares
• Private land (including Heritage Agreements) - 800,000 hectares
• Other Crown land (and unresolved tenure) - 850,000 hectares