This is a superseded dataset, the most recent Australia's Indigenous land and forest estate spatial dataset can be found at: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.
The Australia's Indigenous land and forest estate (2020) is a continental spatial dataset that identifies and reports separately the individual attributes of Australia's Indigenous estate, namely the extent of land and forest over which Indigenous peoples and communities have ownership, management and co-management, or other special rights.
This dataset is the same as the previously published Australia's Indigenous forest estate (2020) (released 03 December 2020) but with an amended title that more accurately reflects the full extent of the dataset.
It was developed from multiple data sources, including national, state and territory datasets related to land in which there is an Indigenous interest. The Indigenous land dataset is then combined with forest cover information from the Forests of Australia (2018) dataset.
The dataset was compiled by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) for the National Forest Inventory (NFI), a collaborative partnership between the Australian and state and territory governments. The role of the NFI is to collate, integrate and communicate information on Australia's forests. The NFI applies a national classification to state and territory data to allow seamless integration of these datasets. Multiple independent sources of external data are used to fill data gaps and improve the quality of final datasets. The following attributes are applied in this dataset:
Indigenous owned: Freehold land or forest that is owned by Indigenous communities, or land and forest for which ownership is vested through other mechanisms.
Indigenous managed: Land or forest that is managed by Indigenous communities.
Indigenous co-managed: Land or forest that has formal, legally binding agreements in place to include input from Indigenous people in the process of developing and implementing a management plan.
Other special rights: Land or forest subject to native title determinations, registered Indigenous Land Use Agreements and legislated special cultural use provisions.
In this dataset, the attributes of Indigenous ownership, Indigenous management or co-management, and other special rights are applied separately. The dataset structure therefore differs from Indigenous estate datasets published by ABARES in 2018 or earlier.