In a recent written statement by Lee Waters MS, Deputy Minister for Climate Change, it was revealed that Welsh Government is planning to increase tree planting targets to 5,000 hectares per year. Welsh Government's previous targets were 2,000 hectares per year, rising to 4,000ha as soon as possible.
According to the Minister, Wales needs to plant 180,000 hectares by 2050 in line with the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC). Last year only 290ha of woodland was planted in Wales. The Deputy Minister called this a ‘call to arms’ in order to meet climate change commitments, as well as provide a wide range of other benefits to Wales.
A Trees Task Force has also found that “current Welsh Government funding for tree planting has been too inconsistent and difficult to access. While it is important to ensure that new woodland is planted in the right places and in the right way, the process for doing this is too slow and bureaucratic”
Welsh Government believes that these revised targets will be met by communities, farmers and other landowners across Wales, as opposed to new woodland planted by the Welsh Government.
Over the next two years, the Minister has committed £17 million to new windows of the Glastir Woodland Creation scheme, and a new Woodland for Wales Action Plan will be launched later this year.
Although Welsh Government does not intend to plant “land most productive for farmers,” the definition of ‘most productive’ will be a concern for many, given the huge proportion of Welsh farms that are entirely categorised as Severely Disadvantaged Areas (SDA).
The dangers of inappropriate afforestation to the rural economy, employment and society are clear based on past experience and current evidence: The economic value (GVA) of forestry and logging is around £70/hectare for all Welsh woodland compared with around £210/hectare for all Welsh farmland, while a square mile of farmland employs around five times more people than the equivalent area of woodland.
Given that the overwhelming majority of employment and economic activity relating to forestry and logging in Wales occurs in the coniferous forestry plantations that make up half of Wales’ woodland, and that the economic and employment value of deciduous woodland per hectare is currently miniscule, the dangers of misguided policies that replace large areas of viable farmland with woodland are clear.
Similarly, many fear that private sector investment coupled with payments for carbon and Welsh Government incentives will lead to changes in landownership and a redirection of money to big business and landowning charities based outside Wales.
The FUW highlighted such dangers in its 2021 Senedd Manifesto, making clear that while members fully support planting ‘the right tree in the right place’, afforestation should not be seen by Government as a silver bullet for mitigating climate change, and inappropriate planting will have catastrophic consequences for the habitats, species, rural businesses, communities and the economy.