Has extension changed to match Australia’s dynamic forestry landscape?

Effective forestry extension implies a thorough understanding of the context of the many stakeholders involved in forestry and related disciplines. Since the early 1990s, forestry in Australia has undergone - and continues to undergo - considerable structural change. This includes change in the ownership, objectives, location, management, industries, and societal expectations of forestry. Small-scale integrated forestry, largely represented as farm forestry, is an expanding and important component of Australia’s forest industries. Farm forestry appears to have considerable potential to provide socio-economic and environmental benefits to rural Australia. Yet the context for farm forestry continues to be dynamic, with a need to increase our understanding of appropriate extension concepts and approaches if we are to contribute to meaningful co-learning processes. In this paper, the author aims to inform those providing extension services of the diverse and changing nature of forestry, by briefly exploring some of the major structural changes that have recently occurred in Australian forestry, and reviewing the principal extension approaches.