Question reference: S6W-01963
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 3 August 2021
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Current status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 7 September 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it achieved its plan to complete the development of 12,000 hectares of woodland in 2020-21.
Answer
National statistics (UK) released on 17 June show that 10,660 hectares of new woodland was created in Scotland in 2020/21, the equivalent of over 21 million trees in the ground and around 80% of all trees planted across the UK
However COVID restrictions, combined with heavy rain and snow across most of Scotland in March, resulted in unavoidable delays to planting. Despite this we achieved 89% of the woodland creation target in 2020-21 and the remaining 11% was planted during the remainder of the planting season in April, May and June, during the first 100 days