Forest Produce Licence

Our State forests are important natural areas. While they can provide valuable materials, their health and integrity must also be safeguarded. To ensure this, anyone who wants to take or use natural resources – such as plants or stone – needs to seek permission from the Conservation Regulator.

Legally, these resources are referred to as ‘forest produce’, and include:

• All parts of trees or other plants including any parts below the ground (for example, small branches, leaves, and roots).
• Products of trees or other plants (for example, seeds, flowers, and fruit).
• Stone and soil.

Parts and products of plants are considered forest produce, whether or not they’re attached to a plant at the time of harvesting.

Visit Resources Victoria Recreational prospecting(opens in a new window)

What a licence allows

It is illegal to dig, cut, or take forest produce in State forests without authorisation. Doing so carries significant penalties under the Forests Act 1958.

A Forest Produce Licence allows an individual or business to legally dig, cut, or take forest produce from State forests for a range of purposes.

Examples of activities that have been authorised through a Forest Produce Licence include:

• Cut and take of parts of trees and plants (for example, eucalyptus leaves or small branches for herbarium specimens).
• Research requiring forest disturbance (for example, cut of plants or removal of samples).
• Seed collection.
• Collection of stone or soil (excluding minerals).
• Gathering of bushfoods (for example, berries and leaves).

Timber and wood

Commercial native timber harvesting in Victoria’s State forests ended on 1 January 2024.

Government’s decision to end commercial native timber harvesting means that the Conservation Regulator will only consider licence applications for the cutting or collection of timber or wood for non-commercial purposes.

Access to timber or wood from our forests has been used to support research projects into understanding how fire spreads through forests, and the effectiveness of ecological thinning to support forest recovery after disturbance.

We will continue to accept non-commercial applications and carefully consider each on their impacts and benefits, and the need for their proposed activities to occur in State forests.

Visit Sourcing firewood(opens in a new window)

What we consider when assessing an application

Application threshold

Seeds, plants, trees, and soil are an important part of Victoria's natural environments, and leaving them in place helps to keep forests healthy for all Victorians to enjoy.

To ensure that these resources remain where they are needed most, the Conservation Regulator will only consider applications to remove forest produce where environmental impacts are acceptable, and either:

• There is no viable private or commercial source of the requested produce.
• There are environmental or community benefits to allowing access to the forest produce (for example, research projects, or seed collection for revegetation or regeneration programs).

Considerations

The Conservation Regulator undertakes a thorough case-by-case assessment of any Forest Produce Licence application it receives.

Some of the things we assess include how the proposed activity could impact:

• Ability of a targeted plant or community to continue to grow and reproduce.
• Forest values, including waterways and threatened species.
• Cultural and heritage sites or other sensitive areas.
• Other forest users or planned land management activities.

We also assess all applications to ensure they meet the legal requirements of the Forests Act 1958 and the Forests (Licences and Permits) Regulations 2019.

Licence conditions

The Conservation Regulator may impose conditions on a licence to ensure harm to forest environments is minimised to the greatest extent possible. Conditions may include:

• Restrictions on the methods of tools allowed (for example, hand tools only).
• Limits on the timing of harvesting (for example, no harvesting after prolonged wet weather).
• Controls on the amount of material that can be harvested from individual plants (for example, no more than 10 per cent of material from a single plant).
• Adjustment of requested areas to minimise impact (for example, moving a site further away from a waterway to minimise potential impact from runoff).

Unsuccessful applications

The Conservation Regulator may decide not to issue a licence. If your application is likely to be rejected, you will have the opportunity to provide further information or adjust your proposal (noting this will not guarantee a decision to then issue the licence).

Assessment process and timelines

You will receive an initial confirmation that we have received your application. You may receive further communication as assessment progresses, including requests for further information (for example, more precise maps, further detail on methods) and updates on the assessment process (for example, if there are unexpected delays). When the assessment is complete, you will be notified by email of the outcome of your application.

Due to the unique nature of each application we are unable to advise of a typical application processing times. You should expect to wait at least six weeks from when you have submitted a complete application to when you are notified of an outcome. The minimum assessment period is an estimate and covers the time needed for us to assess the risk of your proposed activity and consult with affected stakeholders and land managers. Applications may be assessed more quickly if the proposed activity is simple and demonstrably low risk, but we cannot guarantee shorter assessment times.

Assessment may take longer in circumstances where the request:

• Does not provide clear information about the proposed activity.
• Covers large areas of forest or multiple State forests.
• Uses complex or unique procedures or approaches.
• Is located close to sensitive forest values (for example, threatened or protected species, waterways).
• Is in an area where Traditional Owners have rights to provide feedback on how the proposal might affect Country (see below for details).
• Is being processed during a regional or statewide emergency.

It is important to ensure that you provide the best information you can at the initial application stage, as this will support a more timely assessment of your application. If you have a critical timeframe for your planned activity, please get in touch as early as possible.

Traditional Owner feedback

Some areas of Victoria are covered by Land Use Activity Agreements (LUAAs) between the State and the local Traditional Owner Group (or Groups). These agreements recognise Traditional Owners’ rights and interests in activities occurring on Country, including the right to be notified and provide feedback about proposed activities affecting the land over which they hold cultural responsibility. If your activity falls within one of these areas, we will inform the relevant group(s) about the proposal and provide at least 28 days to provide comment.

The information we share with Traditional Owner Group(s) is limited to what you tell us about your proposed activities in the forest in your licence application. None of your personal information is shared as part of this process, due to our obligations under State and Commonwealth data, information, and privacy law.

Licence fees and royalties

There are two payment types required for licences:

In some cases, the licence fee or royalties may be waived, such as where the proposed activity has clear environmental or community benefit.

Refunds

Please note that, once licence fees are paid, refunds will not be issued for a change of mind. If you have a specific refund enquiry, please contact us.

Application guidance notes

We strongly recommend you read the following before beginning your application, to make sure you’re providing all required information.

• You will need to provide detailed information about the produce you want to take, including:
  • Why you need to access the produce from public land (not commercial sources, private land, or another alternative source).
  • The specific area (GPS points or narrow area within a forest).
  • Species, if applicable.
  • Why you need the produce (purpose).
  • How you plan to harvest or collect the produce.
• If applicable:
  • Evidence of public liability insurance, if proposing to use machinery.
  • Evidence of authorisation to disturb wildlife or take protected or threatened flora, if applicable (see Other authorisations above).

Location information

The more specific you can be with where you would like to collect, the better. We recommend that you provide point data or small, defined areas in a digital format. We understand that not everyone will be able to provide information in this way as it can require specialised skills or software.

If you provide large areas (such as entire State forests), we will need to look at impacts of your activity across the whole area, which may not always be possible, or will otherwise take more time and may result in further restrictions on any licence.

• A mapping tool like MapshareVic(opens in a new window) may be helpful to plan your activity. MapShare is an interactive tool where you can view forest-related data such as if an area is State forest, the fire history, the types of vegetation present, and access information (for example, road closures).
• We recommend visiting your proposed locations prior to applying. We can’t guarantee that the produce you are requesting to take will be in the areas you nominate. It is up to you to confirm the produce you are requesting is present.
• When providing multiple locations, please make sure you are clear on what and how much produce you would like to collect from each location.
• When providing your location data, please make sure that you also include all the information that we will need to fully understand it:
  • If there are abbreviations, we need an explanation of what these mean.
  • If your data are colour coded, make sure you also provide a legend.

Geospatial data files

• Such as:
  • Shapefiles (.shp).
  • Google Earth files (.kml).
  • Geodatabases (.gdb).
  • Geopackages (.gpkg).
• Geospatial data is the best way for you to provide your location information, if you are able. These formats give us detail and accuracy we need to efficiently assess your application.

Point data

• Such as:
  • GPS points.
  • Grid references (for example, GDA2020).
  • Google Maps.
  • What3words locations.
• For all point data, you should include a buffer zone in which you would be willing to collect from (for example, 50 metres from each point).
• A buffer allows us to move sites a short distance to avoid impact to sensitive values. If you don’t provide a buffer, sites near sensitive values may be excluded from your licence or moved at the assessing officer’s discretion.
• If you’re including your locations as point data, please provide these in digital format like a spreadsheet, such as:
  • Microsoft Excel (.xls, .csv).
  • Google Sheets file.

Static maps

• Such as:
  • PDFs.
  • Image files.
• Clearly show specific locations that you want to collect from, such as exports from MapshareVic(opens in a new window).

Please note that while we accept applications containing static maps, we cannot use these to directly assess your application. Before starting assessment, we will need to process these into a more useable form. This takes time and may require us to come back to you to confirm we have the details right.

The way that you provide location information will not affect our decision of whether or not to grant a licence. As long as we can understand where you want to collect from, we can consider your application. However some forms, such as static maps, will require us to do more work to understand where you’d like to collect, which will take more time.

Visit MapshareVic(opens in a new window) and What3words.

Apply for a Forest Produce Licence

Before beginning your application, we strongly recommend you read Application guidance notes above, to make sure you’re providing all required information.

You can download, complete, and submit the application form PDF by email.

1. Download and complete application form PDF

2. Submit completed application form PDF by email

Email your completed application form PDF to:

forest.produce@deeca.vic.gov.au