Forest produce licence

In April 2026, the Victorian Government released the Forest Produce Licence Policy. The Policy sets out the circumstances in which the removal of forest produce can be permitted, in line with legislation and the Victorian Government’s forest management policies and objectives.

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

Licences are not available for the collection of firewood.

There are strict rules in place about when, where and what you can collect as firewood. DEECA operates a free domestic firewood program in autumn and spring each year. Visit the Sourcing firewood(opens in a new window) page for more information.

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).

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.

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).

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).

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.

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.

One-time payments charged on a per-licence basis, and act to partially cover the cost of assessing and monitoring activities over the life of a licence.

The current forest produce licence fee of:
$805.19 (1 July 2025 – 30 June 2026, inclusive)
will be applicable for most licences.

A licence fee will only apply if your licence application is successful, in which case a payment notice will be issued. You need to pay the licence fee before you receive your licence.

Payments that cover the value of the produce that is being licensed and depend on the type and quantity of produce requested. A list of current royalty rates can be found below (valid from 1 July 2025 until 30 June 2026 inclusive). Payment of royalties may be required upfront, or at regular intervals across the life of your licence.

• For low volume or short duration licences, royalties may need to be paid upfront before a licence is issued.
• For longer duration licences, royalty payments may be spread out across the duration of the licence (for example, monthly or quarterly).

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.

Royalty rates 2025–2026

Bundle = 25 centimetre diameter

Royalty rates 2025–2026

Activities where wildlife will be disturbed, captured, marked, translocated, kept, sampled, or destroyed may require a permit under the Wildlife Act 1975.

Visit Wildlife management and control authorisations(opens in a new window)

The dig, cut, or take of plants and animals (flora and fauna) that are protected under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 may require further authorisations including:

• Activities that impact on protected fish, freshwater crayfish, or aquatic invertebrates as listed under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988.
• Activities that impact on protected or threatened flora as listed under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 (including fungi and lichen).

Visit Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 authorisations(opens in a new window)

If your proposed activity involves any of the following, you may need to apply for a lease, licence or permit from other areas of the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action:

• Events.
• Commercial filming and photography.
• Organised tours or recreational activities for profit.
• Use of public land for beekeeping (apiary sites).
• Use of crown water frontages.
• Use of buildings on crown land.

Visit Crown land leases, licences and permits | DEECA(opens in a new window)

Forest produce licences are only available for area of State forest. If you want to undertake any similar activities on other public land that is not a State forest, you will need to contact the relevant land manager.

Most other public land across Victoria (including national parks, state parks, regional parks and nature conservation reserves) is managed by Parks Victoria.

Read more information about permits on land managed by Parks Victoria.

Visit Business Opportunities and Permit | Parks Victoria(opens in a new window)

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).

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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.