The Private Forests Act 1994, established an Authority to provide assistance and advice on private forest management, to prescribe the functions and powers of that authority, to provide for related matters and to amend certain Acts.
Under section 6(1) of the Act, the functions of the Authority are as follows: In respect of Function (f) "to maintain and update an inventory of private forests, prepare five-yearly reviews of private forests and report on compliance with export and other licence conditions as required by any agreement entered into between the State and the Commonwealth", the compliance with export and other licence condition requirements was removed with the signing of the Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement November 1997.
The Authority does have the power to provide financial assistance for private commercial forestry (Section 26 of the Act).
This sum related to a Pine Loan Scheme operated by Private Forest Division when it was part of the Forestry Commission.
Under Section 19A [5] there is a requirement for a Ministerial Charter which is to specify the broad policy expectations of the Minister for the Authority.