Meeting of the Parliament 24 January 2017
You are tempting me, Presiding Officer.
We welcome the further devolution of the Forestry Commission, which should help the Scottish Government to achieve its planting targets. However, we also want to examine how we use our forests and how we grow timber. We agree that the responsibility for forestry should be devolved but, alongside that, we need to work with other parts of the UK to preserve the benefits of working together in areas including research and disease control. Neither the UK nor the devolved Governments will alone have the resources to replicate what has been achieved through shared resources, so we urge the Scottish Government to look for ways in which research could be carried out as a joint venture throughout the UK, to replicate the research and development work that people really value. The same is true of disease control, as currently happens. The UK works well in that area through animal health work and interagency working, so it would be desirable to link disease control with planting, along with devolution of forestry to the Scottish Government.
Concerns have been expressed about how forestry will be managed going forward, about the changes to the role of the Forestry Commission, and about the perception of a land agency that will cover much wider issues than forestry. There is a fear that it will become a faceless bureaucracy that is one step away from Government but impenetrable and unaccountable, and that it will be run by career civil servants who know nothing about forestry. We are told that one of the benefits of the Forestry Commission is that it is staffed by foresters who understand the industry and its producers. We are therefore not persuaded that one large organisation trying to do so many jobs will work. That also smacks of centralisation.
I agree that the blanket planting of Sitka spruce throughout Scotland was one of the worst things that happened. It was done mostly for tax breaks, so I am glad that the cabinet secretary has acknowledged that and given a commitment that it will not happen in the future. However, we need to plant more, and the Scottish Government has, as has been stated—including by the cabinet secretary—failed to reach targets year on year. We therefore need a strategy that works. The Mackinnon report looks at ways of achieving that by cutting through red tape, which is to be welcomed.
However, we agree with Confor about the role that is proposed for certifying forestry schemes below the threshold of environmental impact assessment. That should be carried out by Forestry Commission staff, not by private agents, because certifying agents to do that work will boost their business while bringing detriment to other businesses,
My reading of the report suggests that many of the problems are due to the people who are involved and their knowledge of the system. That suggests to me that the systems that are in place need to be changed and that staff require better training.
Systems have to be in place to allow a more streamlined application process for schemes that do not require an environmental impact assessment. Likewise, it needs to be clear where more in-depth applications are required.
To allow the system to work, we need a national plan that says where we will encourage tree planting and where we would not necessarily want it—for example, on good agricultural land that is required for food production, or in areas where planting would have a detrimental environmental impact. We need a plan that looks at where forests are required not just for land use and wood production, but for environmental and recreational uses. Forests that are close to towns and cities provide timber very close to market and excellent recreational areas. That encourages people out into our forests for the good of their mental and physical health.
However, areas that lend themselves to planting are often on poorer land, so they are away from towns, cities and easy access. We have a lot of land-locked forests that are ready for harvesting, but getting the timber to market is a real problem. Rural roads are often narrow, poorly constructed and poorly maintained. A large number of heavy timber lorries can cause a lot of damage and therefore impact on other road users.
Where possible, forest roads should be designed to get the timber as close as possible to A-class roads and railways. The railway is ideal: many tracks in our rural areas are underused and have the capacity to take timber, but that needs planning, proper sidings and loading equipment to get the timber on to the rail line.