Confor Chief Executive Stuart Goodall looks ahead to the political prospects for forestry and timber in Scotland, questioning if the long-standing frontrunner can keep pace with the rest of the UK

The Herald: EARLIER this year, Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon announced her intention to chair a summit on woodland creation, following the revelation that Scotland’s tree planting rates had suffered a truly worrying dip in the year to 31 March 2023. 

Confor welcomed this initiative, and significant investment in training for Scottish Forestry staff, as the industry had been warning for some time that the processes for assessing and approving planting applications are still not fit for purpose. 

New woodland creation figures have fallen year on year since Scotland published its 10-year Forestry Strategy in 2019 and action is sorely needed to get the country back on track.

The Woodland Creation Summit has been scheduled for 12 December and its outputs could determine whether Scotland maintains its lead in new planting in the UK.

The industry stands ready to plant far more trees, to help Scotland on its path to net zero greenhouse gas emissions, and to create jobs and growth in fragile rural economies. 

Businesses across Scotland are passionately committed to achieving the planting target which is rising to 18,000 hectares next year and to realising the wide range of economic and environmental benefits that will arise from that.

Scotland produces about 60% of the UK’s annual timber harvest as part of a £1billion industry that employs 25,000 people. 

Fast-growing trees sequester carbon quickly and the wood they produce can lock up that carbon, for example in houses, and wood is easily reused and recycled.  

However, the frustrations that the industry has faced in achieving these goals are still apparent. 

Businesses need practical actions that will empower them to produce the well-designed woodlands vital for both net zero and a low-carbon economy. 
Confor is also hosting a policy conference this December, inviting members, industry leaders and policymakers to discuss the future and potential of the forestry and wood-using sector. 

Reflecting England’s ambition to rival Scotland as a destination for tree planting and greater use of wood, the key topic of the day is set to be the much-anticipated National Wood Strategy for England, co-authored by my colleague Andy Leitch and one of our members, Tom Barnes, Managing Director of Vastern Timber. The paper sets out the need to produce more wood, and how that can be achieved in a partnership between industry, government and NGOs. 

The development of the Strategy has had vocal support across the board, including enthusiastic backing from the former forestry Minister Trudy Harrison MP. 

Trudy also championed the development of a roadmap to use more timber in construction, which it is hoped will be published in the New Year, and she has pressed hard for significant improvements to the process of approving tree planting projects, including wood producing forests. 

In Wales as well, there is government support for increased tree planting and increased production of wood to build a new generation of low-carbon homes with wood. 

In addition to locking up carbon, wood products emit far less carbon in their production than brick, steel and concrete, and homes made from timber frame can be far more energy efficient over their lifetime saving money and reducing carbon emissions from energy. 

Scotland should be watching these developments closely, and we can only hope a similar level of progress becomes apparent from the conversations at the Summit.

www.confor.org.uk