The momentum of global warming and the realities of our long-term effect on nature continue to build, yet simultaneously we seem paralysed in making any fundamental directional decisions in changing our outlook for land use.
As one of the asset managers running sustainable forestry portfolios, we have an obvious focus on growing trees – how do we plant more trees, where do we plant these trees, what type of trees should we plant and what are we planting those trees for?
See also: Gresham House launches International Sustainable Forestry Coalition
Scotland (and the wider UK) has set some excellent and challenging targets for new tree planting, but year after year we all fail to meet these targets. We fall in on each other over where and what and why we should be planting, and the result? Little gets done. Another year passes and targets are missed again. The result, budgets allocated to support tree planting are reviewed and as evidenced in the recent announcement by the Scottish government – already allocated central funding is cut. Cut, even though half of its own annual planting targets have not been reached.
Planting trees requires a long-time horizon. It also requires an environment of stable government support, clear long-term objectives, and as much certainty of outcome as possible. The present environment is quite different. While ambitious woodland creation targets should be applauded, the lack of stability around government support, the confusion around ecosystem service finance, and the uncertainty of outcome within the planning system puts these ambitious targets beyond reach.
Estate owners are long-term custodians of land, often making decisions that impact generations to follow. It is critical therefore, if we are to increase tree cover across the UK, that landowners are able to make objective decisions around land use, in the knowledge that appropriate frameworks and objectives are in place to allow them to deliver maximum social, environmental and economic benefit from the differing land types under their care.
We forecast that over the next 30 years global timber consumption is going to rise by 2.7 times. This demand will be driven by population growth, more people living in urban areas, increased house building and most importantly, the need to decarbonise the economy. Decarbonising the economy means replacing highly carbon intensive materials such as concrete and steel with timber.
See also: Green Dream with Gresham House’s Hughes: Balancing timber production with natural plantation
You may ask, what has that got to do with us? The answer is – we import 80% of our timber needs in the UK – as global demands rise so will timber prices, in turn this will negatively impact our ability to access an increasingly limited resource.
Where we have the ability to produce our own resources in our own country and be self-reliant we must aspire to that – be it food, energy or timber? By growing our forestry sector we positively contribute to the economy, we provide jobs, help to meet climate change targets but as importantly we become self-sustainable and provide for our futures. As land owners and managers we must look to how we use our land both sustainably and productively.
The consequence and reaction to this call to arms is not obvious. It seems that different factions cannot see compromise, ‘we must only farm land for food’, ‘we should only grow trees for nature’. The polarisation of thought has never been so fundamental.
We need to set targets – for food production, for nature recovery, for natural resources including timber and for jobs and the wider economy. Once those targets are set we can then assess where and how we meet those targets. Funding and state support must be fairly allocated and relevant. Most importantly these need to be reviewed on a landscape and national scale. One size cannot fit all.
High quality land must be used for food production, medium and low quality land managed for food and timber, low quality and nature-sensitive land enhanced for nature and biodiversity. Making the same piece of land, deliver all of these roles will continue to result in the current status quo which results in discordance and the paralysis of development.
This is not about private land ownership versus public land – it is about leadership, looking at our natural capital resource and thinking how it can be best utilised to sustainably provide for the future, both to the local population, the whole country and to nature.
Forestry and trees are an integral part of our environment. Under current regulations our timber stocks will fall and our resilience to an increase in global demands will fall. We need to focus our attention on planting more trees, of all species, to turn this around. This is not an exclusive challenge and all landowners and managers must look to this opportunity. Now is the time to make change and now is the time to challenge dogmatic political thinking to ensure our and nature’s future.
