Rural Scotland People, Prosperity and Partnership

---

FORESTRY

A policy of forestry expansion over the last seventy-five years has resulted in the doubling of creation of Scotland' s forest and woodland cover, which is now about 1.2 million hectares, 15% of land area. There are about 122,000 hectares of semi natural remnants of ancient woodland - 16,000 hectares of pinewoods and 106,000 hectares broadleaved woodlands.

Forestry supports some 10,500 jobs in Scotland in forest management, timber harvesting and haulage and wood processing. In 1994 Scotland's forests and woodlands produced just over 3 million cubic metres of timber, nearly all of it softwood from forests planted twenty five and more years ago. The timber harvest has risen by 250% over the last twenty years. This increase has fed major new investment in timber processing in Scotland, for example Caledonian Paper at Irvine and Norbord Highland at Inverness. About three-quarters of the timber currently produced in Scotland is processed in Scotland. The timber harvest from existing forests and woodlands is set to increase to 8 million cubic metres over the next twenty years providing opportunities for further investment and employment in harvesting and wood processing.

Forestry Policy

Native woodlands

The Future of Forestry

Following the Review of Forestry, we published in 1994 the Command Paper "Our Forests, the Way Ahead". This outlined the Government' s plans to help forestry develop to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Forest Enterprise is being set up as an Agency to manage the Forestry Commission's estate. Through its Corporate Plan and Framework Document, specific targets will be set for all its activities and priority is given to recreational, environmental and conservation as well as commercial objectives. We believe that the quality of new woodland is at least as important as the physical area of expansion; and expect forestry expansion in Scotland to provide environmental benefits, through for example, the creation of new native woodlands, as well as increasing timber production in the long term.