FOREST VALUATION WORKING GROUPS

IFA Forest Valuation Subcommittee and Working Group
The Australian Forest Valuation Standard (A Standard for Valuing Commercial Forests in Australia – ‘AFVS’) and associated Handbook were published in 2012. They were developed to provide professional and sectoral interpretation to the formal standards applied to forest valuations in Australia¹. The AFVS played a key role in provided guidance and sectoral confidence in addressing issues associated with forestry valuations.

At a meeting of the Institute of Foresters on 26th August 2016 participants endorsed a proposal to refresh the process for managing and maintaining the AFVS.
Specifically, the IFA Forest Valuation Standard Subcommittee was formed to provide a forum for bringing together the practitioners and procurers of forest valuations, being individual forest owners². One of the key drivers for this was to build and disseminate knowledge, to create confidence in the sector, and avoid concentration of risk.

NZIF Forest Valuation Working Party
The Council of the New Zealand Institute of Forestry established the Forest Valuation Working Party in 1993 with the Terms of Reference given on page V. In August 1994 a Discussion Draft set of Forest Valuation Guidelines was released and submissions invited. A substantially revised Exposure Draft was released in October 1996 and again submissions were invited. A final version of the Standards was released in May 1999.

The Forest Valuation Working Party continued to develop the Forest Valuation standards. The Working Party published four supplementary technical releases in following years. An exposure draft representing a partial update of the standards was released in April 2019. Submissions were invited and the Working Party disseminated revised updates in September 2020.

¹ Both documents were co-funded by FWPA.
² Usually in the form of trusts or companies, represented and branded by a smaller number of forest managers.

Last date updated: 27/02/2025