Forests can play vital role

Ihate to begin an article with the words, or even the thought of, either Brexit or Boris but had it not been for the “B” words, domination of our news and politics over the last year would – and should – have been by the climate change emergency.

Actions to reduce the threats posed by global warming must move up everyone’s agenda and apart from dramatic reductions in our use of fossil fuels, one of the most effective means of reducing atmospheric CO2 is to plant trees.

Planting billions of trees across the world is by far the easiest, most effective and practical way to tackle the climate crisis – something scientists agree with.

Increasing forest cover isn’t now simply an item on the wish-list of those of us who chose forestry as a career, it is accepted as good science virtually everywhere and there has been much talk about how to achieve higher levels of new woodland creation globally.

A study published by a Swiss university this summer found there are 1.7 billion hectares of treeless land in the world on which 1.2 trillion tree saplings would naturally grow.

That area is about 11% of all land and equivalent to the size of the US and China combined. Tropical areas could have 100% tree cover, while others would be more sparsely covered, meaning that on average about half the area would be under tree canopy.

The researchers specifically excluded all fields used to grow crops and urban areas from their analysis. But they did include grazing land, on which they said a few trees can also benefit sheep and cattle. The research showed the UK, in particular, has high potential for new forests.

Landowners and farmers in Scotland are becoming increasingly switched on to forestry as a potentially viable part of their rural business, which is helping to drive the woodland creation figures forward.

With increasing interest from investors in productive woodlands and a bright, long-term outlook for timber as a global commodity, we have seen the development of a two-track market for upland land values.

Hill land with good and demonstrable potential for productive woodland creation, ie relatively low elevation, mineral soils, good access and few, if any, environmental or other designations (which may have traditionally been used for marginal grazing), will currently be worth double or more of that where such constraints are present.

Westminster’s climate change committee has called for 30,000 hectares (75,000 acres) of woodland to be planted annually, possibly rising to 50,000 hectares if other carbonreduction targets are not achieved.

In the year to end March 2019, the UK planted 13,400 hectares of new forest, almost 85% of which (11,210 hectares) was in Scotland. Despite positive sounds being made by all UK governments, it is only north of the border that systems have been put in place translating talk into action.

Large-scale creation of new woodlands inevitably involves significant land use change and it is the semi-improved, “middle hill” grazing land where the greatest opportunities lie to provide the social, environmental and economic benefits which come with well-designed forestry expansion.

While incentives remain for landowners to plant trees and for buyers to invest in forested land, the sector remains buoyant and an essential cog in the global carbonreducing wheel.

Those with land which may be managed to help mitigate the climate change crisis would be well advised to actively consider forestry as part of their long-term strategy.

On an individual level, everyone can make a real impact by growing trees themselves and supporting forest restoration programmes.

The outlook for timber as a global commodity is bright and planting millions of new trees could be key to tackling the climate crisis.