‘This is the way to protect forestry’ says Highlands’ rural affairs secretary

Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon has said “doing nothing is not an option” when it comes to securing the future of Scotland’s forests from the effects of climate change.

With recent examples of violent storms, increasing temperatures, droughts, wildfires and more tree pests and diseases, a new ‘routemap’ has been published by Scottish Forestry which will provide the direction needed for building resilient forests.

The routemap, the first of its kind in the UK, outlines a number of key actions to help the nation’s woodlands resist, adapt, respond and recover from the various current climate related threats.

The resilience actions cover both immediate and long-term priorities over the next 10 years.

Ms Gougeon said: “Over the past few years we have had plenty of evidence that the global effects of climate change are increasing the frequency of extreme weather events.

“In Scotland we are seeing hotter drier summers, warmer wetter winters and vicious storms with damaging winds. We need to future proof our forest and woodlands against this.

“Doing nothing is not an option and I am pleased that much work has already taken place to counter this and make our forests more resilient. But we can and must do more.

“The routemap published today provides a strategic and comprehensive action plan with clear work to be undertaken to boost our forests for the future.”

The plan is to prioritise work on the following three areas to help Scotland’s forests and woodlands cope with climate change:

Forest planning: introduce numerous measures to help reduce future risks and threats.

Species choice and silviculture: choosing and growing tree species that will thrive well into the future; and

Knowledge exchange: sharing best practice, training and publishing more resources.

Helen Sellars, head of sustainable forest management at Scottish Forestry added: “There is no one magic prescription that can instantly make our forests and woodland resilient to climate change. We need to act now as this precious natural asset is being put under increasing pressure from a number of threats.

“We need to be smarter in forest planning, get the right trees growing and make sure we take advantage and share the all the latest knowledge of creating resilient forests. This routemap will provide a blueprint to achieve all this.”

Actions in the plan are wide ranging and include using scenario planning, use of new technologies like AI, eDNA and satellite data, more use of ‘smart silviculture’ and better monitoring and surveillance for ecosystems.

Ensuring seed availability, tree improvement programmes, developing silvicultural knowledge, the co-ordination of genetic resources, and a list of tree species for the future are all on the agenda, as well as knowledge workshops where Scotland can learn from other countries.

A steering group, led by Scottish Forestry, has co-ordinated the work to produce the routemap. The membership included cross-sector representation including CONFOR representatives, Scottish Environment LINK members, industry groups and organisations, Forest Research, Forestry and Land Scotland, and independent forest management experts.

Vice Convener of the Woodlands Group with the Scottish Environment Link, Andrew Weatherall, added:

“We welcome this routemap and the collaborative cross-sector approach being taken. Importantly it identifies the actions necessary to increase resilience to climate change, and the growing number of pests and diseases in our trees, woods and forests. This is vital, so they can continue to provide biodiversity habitat, climate adaptation and mitigation, public access to nature and domestic timber supply.”

Andy Leitch, deputy chief executive of Confor said: “Confor endorses the ambitions of the action plan and welcomes the partnership approach with the private sector to ensure the future productivity of our forests and future timber security.

“Overall, we support this collaborative approach and are happy to be named participants against the actions and outcomes of the plan”

Forest Research’s CEO, James Pendlebury, said: “Forest Research is supporting the routemap by providing the scientific evidence base and expert advice needed to help make our trees, woodland and forests more resilient to climate change and all its associated impacts.”

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