What's next for Scottish Forestry?

If you work in Scottish forestry, you have probably heard the rumblings by now.

When the First Minister published his Programme for Government on 1 September, one line caught the sector's attention. The plan is to bring SEPA, NatureScot and Zero Waste Scotland together into a single environment body – and "potentially Scottish Forestry" too.

Scottish Forestry is the agency behind felling permissions, the Forestry Grant Scheme, regulation and forestry policy. In other words, a lot of what decides whether trees get planted, felled and replanted in Scotland. (It is separate from Forestry and Land Scotland, which manages the national forests and isn't named in the plan.)

Confor, Woodland Trust Scotland and the Institute of Chartered Foresters wrote jointly to ministers saying the proposal gives them "grave cause for concern". Their main worry is that specialist forestry expertise gets lost inside a much bigger organisation with a broader focus, and that woodland creation suffers as a result.

An ICF survey backed that up. Nearly nine in ten respondents rejected folding Scottish Forestry into a super-agency, and 95% said Scotland should keep a standalone forestry body. To be fair, many also said Scottish Forestry itself needs reform, particularly faster decisions and better joined-up working. Anyone who has waited on a felling permission will probably nod at that.

Wales is the obvious comparison. Forestry there was folded into Natural Resources Wales back in 2013, and that experience has already been raised as a warning in the Scottish debate.

Cabinet Secretary Gillian Martin has told MSPs she still needs "more analysis" on where Scottish Forestry should sit, and that some of its functions might move into core government instead. Forestry leaders met her on 6 October to make their case. The wider environment body isn't expected until around 2029, and a consultation on the detail is expected this autumn.

So why does this matter if you're on the tools rather than in an office? Because grants and permissions are what keep planting crews, harvesting teams and forest managers busy. If those slow down during a long reorganisation, the knock-on effect lands on jobs across the sector.

When the consultation opens, I'll share it here. It is worth having your say.

Jack

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🌲 Scottish Forestry is only seven years old. It was set up on 1 April 2019, when forestry was fully devolved and the old Forestry Commission Scotland was split into two agencies – Scottish Forestry and Forestry and Land Scotland.

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