Hansard

Thank you.

I welcome this debate on developing forestry in Scotland, as it is nine years since the subject was last debated in Government business. I started my working life in forestry, destroying the birks of Aberfeldy to plant conifer plantations on behalf of Midland Bank in the 1980s. I then went on to the University of Aberdeen to study forestry. When I was at university, I campaigned against the afforestation of the peatlands of Caithness and Sutherland. Years later, I learned that I was blacklisted from employment in the forestry sector as a consequence of that. Therefore, I have some experience of the topic.

We are a bit disappointed by the Government’s lack of ambition for forestry. The 50th anniversary of the Forestry Act 1967 will be on 22 March this year. Notwithstanding devolution in 1999, the statutory framework for forestry and the responsibilities of Forestry Commission Scotland have moved on little.

We welcome the complete devolution of forestry, of course, but in addition to reforming governance and introducing new mechanisms to achieve afforestation targets, a new act could open with a new suite of statutory purposes for forestry policy in Scotland, including climate change mitigation, supporting the rural economy, advancing land reform and environmental restoration, and promoting social policy in the fields of health and wellbeing. In particular, a new act should incorporate a statutory duty on ministers to promote sustainable forest management and implement United Nations sustainable development goal 15.2, which is:

“By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally”.

In that light, our amendment calls for two elements of a more ambitious approach to the future of forestry in Scotland. The first relates to the ownership of Scotland’s expanding forest cover, which is dominated by those who live far away from the land that they own, often in offshore tax havens, and whose motivations are often limited solely to the financial and tax advantages that are associated with ownership.

A few years ago, I undertook a study of the pattern of private ownership of Scotland’s forests. When I asked Forestry Commission Scotland about the source of the ownership data that it submitted to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in 2011, I was astounded to be told that it was based on estimates that were in turn derived from a UK-wide survey that was carried out in 1977.

Unlike the situation in most European countries, the Scottish Government and Forestry Commission Scotland collect minimal information on forest holdings and publish nothing. We now know that Scotland stands at the extreme end of countries in Europe, with the most concentrated pattern of private ownership. In Scotland, more than 44 per cent of forest holdings are of over 100 hectares. Sweden has the next highest level, at 10 per cent, and the European average is 0.7 per cent.

The majority of Scotland’s private forest area is owned by absentee owners, a third of whom live outside Scotland. Across Europe, by contrast, forestry is owned by co-operatives, communities and municipalities. In countries such as Sweden and Finland, companies such as Södra and Metsäliitto Co-operative own extensive forest, which is managed on behalf of their members.

The second part of my amendment relates to reform of the governance of the national forest estate. I heard what the minister said and I look forward to further discussions on the matter.

Twenty-five years ago, I asked a prominent historian of the Highlands and Islands, Dr James Hunter, to write an editorial for a magazine that I was editing about the future of forestry in Scotland. Contrary to the prevailing orthodoxy of the time, he noted:

“The Forestry Commission is to Scottish forestry what collectivisation was to Soviet agriculture.”

He went on to argue for reform in how state forests are managed. He made the very good point that public ownership of land does not necessarily mean state ownership; real public ownership means ownership by the public.

It is a common belief that the Forestry Commission owns the national forest estate, but it does not. All land that is managed by the Forestry Commission is owned by Scottish ministers. Section 3 of the Forestry Act 1967, which the Government is intent on repealing, makes it clear that the Forestry Commission is merely the manager of land that is placed at its disposal by Scottish ministers. A new forestry act should allow a much wider range of bodies, such as community groups, environmental charities, co-operatives and local councils, to be appointed by Scottish ministers to manage parts of the national forest estate, which would remove the monopoly that the Forestry Commission enjoys.

I have two further matters to raise in the short time that I have available. The first is on achieving the Government’s target for forestry expansion, which will be challenging. The Forestry Commission briefing that the minister helpfully distributed yesterday makes it clear that, although we know where forest expansion should happen in broad terms, it is not happening. Given the climate change imperative of forestry expansion, we need to develop new mechanisms through planning and fiscal policy to make new forestry obligatory.

Secondly, the Forestry Commission’s repositioning programme is based on recommendations from a 2004 review. In an answer to a written question in October 2016, I was told by the minister:

“The Scottish Government has yet to decide on any further sales programme beyond those areas already notified.”—[Written Answers, 27 October 2016; S5W-03745.]

I understand that the minister possesses lists of new proposed sales of the national forest estate. I would welcome his confirmation of that and I ask him to let Parliament know of such plans as soon as possible.

Is Scotland simply a resource colony for distant corporate, industrial and financial interests, or is it a country that is to be developed for the benefit of the communities that live and work in rural Scotland?

I move amendment S5M-03573.3, to leave out from “calls on” to end and insert:

“; further recognises that forestry expansion should form part of the land reform agenda to increase social and co-operative forest ownership, and calls on the Scottish Government to bring forward proposals for reform of the governance of the National Forest Estate to enable a wider range of bodies to manage it.”