Scottish Woodlot Association
The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-07627, in the name of Aileen McLeod, on Scottish Woodlot Association, a first for Galloway. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament notes that a new form of forest tenure has been introduced in Galloway with the establishment of what it understands is Scotland’s first woodlot licence on the Corsewall Estate near Stranraer; considers that the concept of woodlots as a means of ensuring a diverse forestry sector has been proved over 30 years in British Columbia; considers that promoting a diverse Scottish forestry sector that encourages people to become involved in managing woodland for themselves is a positive development for rural Scotland; congratulates the Scottish Woodlot Association and the owner of Corsewall Estate, Angus Carrick-Buchanan, on agreeing the first Scottish woodlot licence, and hopes that this will be the first of many more to come.
17:02
I am delighted to lead the debate on a first for Scotland that is happening in the far west of Dumfries and Galloway. I am also delighted to welcome members of the Scottish Woodlot Association to the public gallery; I thank them and Scottish Land & Estates for the helpful briefings that were sent to members ahead of the debate.
I think that members will readily associate Dumfries and Galloway with forestry. In fact, the region produces approximately 30 per cent of Scotland’s annual timber harvest and has a significant timber processing industry. Having visited the sawmills at Lockerbie and Dalbeattie—the latter being the largest single-site sawmill in Europe—I must say how impressed I was by the huge scale of the operations.
The region also has smaller sawmills and forestry contractors, and the industry plays an important role in tourism as the Forestry Commission hosts two of the popular 7stanes mountain bike trails at Kirroughtree and Dalbeattie. Dumfries and Galloway Council estimates that the sector employs approximately 3,000 people in the region, with numerous further economic benefits associated with public access, sporting activities and nature tourism.
Of course, forestry in Dumfries and Galloway also faces challenges. Larch tree disease is a particularly significant challenge, so I welcome the Government’s commitment of resources to tackle the infestation in Galloway and I thank the Minister for Environment and Climate Change for his visit with me in August so that we could see for ourselves the full extent of the disease in the Galloway forest.
In the short term, larch disease will keep much of the industry very busy, but it will also present future challenges. Even with those challenges, forestry is a big business, which is part of the issue that the Scottish Woodlot Association has identified. It is very difficult for someone who works in forestry to manage woodland for themselves.
Scotland has the most concentrated forest ownership in Europe. By way of example, Ireland has around a fifth of the forest area of Scotland but more than five times as many forest owners. The Netherlands also has a forest area of around a fifth of Scotland’s but with seven times as many owners. That is an issue because the concentration of ownership and large average plot sizes go hand in hand. In Scotland, our average private forest ownership area is 232 hectares. In the Scandinavian countries, small-scale forestry thrives: in Norway, the average forest smallholding is 50 hectares; in Sweden, it is 43 hectares; and in Finland it is just 32 hectares. Scotland, on the other hand, also has about 300,000 hectares of undermanaged woodlands. Clearly, the problem is that there are few opportunities for people to manage forests for themselves, while there is a substantial amount of woodland that is not productive.
That is where woodlot licences come in. A woodlot licence allows a landowner to agree a long-term rolling lease with the Scottish Woodlot Association, which then divides the woodland into one or more woodlot licences and sets a rent for each based on its annual allowable cut. The licence holders manage the woodland and can fell, process and sell the timber for themselves.
The idea is that the licence holder should be able to make money out of the proposition—not enough to give up the day job, perhaps, but certainly enough to be a significant addition to their income. The benefit to the landowner is that an area of forestry, which might otherwise become a problem that the landowner might not have the skills to manage or might be prohibitively expensive to deal with, is taken off the landowner’s hands. What was a potential liability becomes a source of lease income.
The concept of woodlots is not new, as they date back to 1948 in British Columbia. However, the concept did not really take off until the 1970s. In 1976, there were only 37 woodlot licences in British Columbia, but there are now 836 licences, which manage 0.5 million hectares of forestry and provide all or part of an income for 12,000 people. Therefore, it would be fair to say that the model has a proven track record.
Woodlot licences will not only offer an opportunity to engage many more people in the active management of Scotland’s forests but allow undermanaged woodland to be brought back into production. They can also help to tackle the very real threat to Scotland’s forestry industry that is posed by the shrinking workforce, which is generally composed of older people and has few young people coming into the sector. The sort of direct hands-on experience that woodlot licences offer could play a crucial role in attracting a new generation into the forest industry, at a time when we need them most.
One benefit of a woodlot movement would be the possibility to pool experience and even equipment, so that not every new woodlot licence holder need be an experienced forester with expensive gear. The Scottish Woodlot Association briefing calls that “open-source forestry”. That is an attractive idea, which is certainly more likely to attract people with an interest in forestry into developing that interest further.
Of course, there would be no woodlot licences in Scotland if it were not for Angus Carrick-Buchanan, owner of the Corsewall estate near Stranraer, who has taken a leap of faith in setting up the very first woodlot licence. That licence covers 37 hectares of mixed woodland on the Corsewall estate, initially for an 18-month period to establish the concept, although all parties are committed to a longer-term agreement.
The licence holder, Mark Rowe, will be responsible for managing the woodland according to a management plan that has been drawn up by the landowner. That includes felling and extracting timber, which the licence holder will be able to process and sell for himself as firewood and sawn timber. I hope that, together, Angus Carrick-Buchanan, Mark Rowe and the Scottish Woodlot Association will be able to demonstrate that woodlot licences are ready to go, so that all the potential benefits that I have outlined can start to be realised sooner rather than later.
I also warmly welcome the support that Scottish Land & Estates has expressed for the concept of woodlot licences. I hope that its willingness to promote and encourage the uptake of woodlot licences among landowners will help to roll out the concept across Scotland.
That said, the Scottish Woodlot Association is a small organisation with a big idea—an idea that is receiving lots of interest and lots of requests. If the concept is to be rolled out across Scotland, as I hope it will, the association will need help to make that happen. Therefore, I invite the minister to have a meeting with the Scottish Woodlot Association, so that we can explore further what contribution the use of woodlot licences on a wider scale could make towards achieving the Scottish Government’s policy objectives for forestry and what they could do not only to connect people to their local woodlands but to help stimulate rural enterprise, create more local jobs and support the forestry environment.
I commend the hard work and dedication of the Scottish Woodlot Association, and Will Allen and Andy Brown in particular. Galloway now has the first Scottish woodlot licence and I hope that it will be home to many more. The idea could have substantial benefits for the forestry industry across Scotland. Woodlot licences could become as common a practice in rural Scotland as they are in British Columbia, and the whole of rural Scotland could benefit from their existence.
17:10
Every now and again we come across an initiative that seems so obvious and so right that we cannot understand why we did not think of it ourselves or why we have not come across it somewhere else. That is very much the case with woodlots.
In my farming days, the land that I farmed had some 100 acres of woodland in various stages of—to be frank—mismanagement. It was spread over areas that varied from as little as half an acre to more than 25 acres in one wood. They would have been planted to enhance the shooting asset of what was at one time a small sporting estate—long before my time, I hasten to add—but they would also have been planted with a commercial aim in mind.
The woods were attractive and pleasing to the eye, and they undoubtedly enhanced the overall attraction of the fairly steep-sided valley in which they were placed. They would have been a lot more attractive and pleasing to the eye if I had managed them better, but my efforts were entirely focused on the farming aspect of the business and I freely confess that the proper management of the not-inconsiderable amount of woodland that was my responsibility was very low on my list of priorities.
What I would have given for the Scottish Woodlot Association in those days! How typical of most of my life it is that, almost as soon as I have given up on a problem or found another way of disposing of it, the answer appears in front of me, as if by magic. My farming circumstances would have lent themselves to a woodlot licensee as perfectly as a duck to water. I dearly wish that woodlots had made an appearance in Scotland 40 or 50 years before now.
As I said, the whole concept seems so simple that we wonder why it has taken so long to surface here in Scotland. That should not prevent us from whole-heartedly welcoming the development of woodlots, and I am more than happy to lend my voice to others in support of the initiative.
As Aileen McLeod did, I congratulate my constituent Angus Carrick-Buchanan and the first Scottish woodlot licence-holder, Mark Rowe, for taking the first step in what I am convinced will soon become a common model of woodland and forestry management across Scotland. I have known Angus for some years, and I had the great pleasure of meeting Mark at the Galloway country fair in summer, along with other members of the Scottish Woodlot Association. Their enthusiasm and sheer joy at the project will set a fine benchmark for others to follow, as I am certain that they will do.
As the Scottish Woodlot Association’s welcome briefing says, woodlot licences are an exciting new way of managing Scotland’s forests and connecting people to woodland, while providing a mechanism for people of all ages to have easier access to forest land. They will boost local economies, stimulate rural development and create employment. They will increase the availability of firewood and biomass fuel and—this is important—they will encourage the development of small-scale, decentralised forest enterprises across the country, in a way that can only be beneficial for everyone concerned.
I can see no downside to the initiative. It has been welcomed by all the representative bodies that I am aware have commented on it, not least Scottish Land & Estates. The motion that is before us highlights that rarest of outcomes: a genuine win-win situation, in which there are no losers. I congratulate Aileen McLeod on lodging the motion. It might be 40 years too late for me, but this is surely an initiative that has found its proper time.
17:14
I am pleased to speak in the debate, not just because a high percentage of Scotland’s forestry estate is in my home county, Argyll, but because in my previous career I had the joy of working with wood as a material for building houses and for making furniture.
I am sorry to say that, over my lifespan, I have seen a significant decline in locally added value in our timber industry in Argyll. Nowadays, sawn logs are exported with little or no added value, and an industry that was once labour intensive and which supported whole communities is now one in which most of the work is done by machines. Not so many years ago, there were several small sawmills in Argyll, creating employment and adding the significant value that is available when timber is converted. Now, there is none. Those sawmills went out of business not because there was no demand for their products but because they were unable to make the significant investments that were necessary for them to keep up to date and remain competitive.
Timber technology has been driven by advances that have been made in the Scandinavian countries, where significant investments have been made in small-scale sawmills, thus making an important socioeconomic contribution to their rural economies. One result of our failure to do that came to light when the new community hall was being built on the island of Colonsay a few years ago. The community was unable to source the laminated roof timbers in Scotland and had to import them from Norway. Engineered timber is a very useful material with better strength to weight ratios than steel. It is also one of our most sustainable building materials, locking up carbon for its lifespan—and, with good design and reasonable maintenance, that lifespan can be considerable. Our forefathers understood that. I have personally repaired sash and case windows that were over 100 years old and which will, I hope, last for another 100 years.
Woodlots are therefore important not only because they offer opportunities for better management of this valuable resource, creating better-quality and higher-amenity woodlands, but because they offer a means of adding significant local value to the resources, giving rise to meaningful and rewarding employment and supporting fragile rural economies. Too often in the past, our forestry has been driven by tax advantages manifesting themselves in fast-growing spruce plantations. Mixed and less dense planting, especially of native hardwoods, offers a much higher albeit longer-term return not just in economic terms but in terms of biodiversity and landscape quality. In well-managed woodlands, timber can be a source not just of firewood or sawn logs for pulp but of a high-quality material for building as well as a source material for crafts such as furniture making.
Woodlots offer an opportunity for the kind of good management that has been noticeably absent from much of our forest land in recent years. I therefore wish the Scottish Woodlot Association every success in taking this innovative concept forward.
17:18
I, too, congratulate Aileen McLeod on bringing the debate to the chamber. I am pleased to speak about woodlot licences and family forestry in Scotland, both of which I support because of their potential value to Scotland’s rural economy through job creation and forest management. As a member with a keen interest in woodland crofting, I understand the need for woodlot licensing and support it fully. Like Alex Fergusson, I wish that I had thought of the idea myself. I believe that a diverse forestry sector could come as a result of the licences and family forestry, and we should recognise the merits of both.
I will speak generally about the potential benefits of the licences but, before I do so, I express my delight at the awarding of Scotland’s first woodlot licence in August for land on the Corsewall estate, near Stranraer. I am delighted by all that I have read about Mark Rowe and Angus Carrick-Buchanan and their agreement to have a fantastic management plan for 37 hectares on that estate. The plan allows Mr Rowe to engage in the felling and abstraction of timber, which he will then be allowed to process and sell as firewood and sawn timber. In return, Mr Rowe will pay an annual rental for the woodlot to Mr Carrick-Buchanan.
That is a good method of managing land and, as Mr Carrick-Buchanan said,
“This pilot project with the Scottish Woodlot Association sets out to prove that the woodlot licence holder, the woodland owner, the environment and the local economy can all win.”
Woodlot licences will be important because they will potentially link local people, land management professionals, forest owners, timber processors and buyers in a co-operative working arrangement, which will provide benefits to existing forest owners and rural communities alike. Woodlot licences could provide the means to create many new jobs in the rural economy and could encourage people to live and work in rural areas.
In British Columbia, where woodlot licensing was pioneered, 12,000 people make all or part of their living from woodlot licences. I am sure that members will agree that that is an impressive statistic. It is rightly acknowledged that woodlot licences will bring undermanaged woodland into production, which will lead to more forest management activity than at present. That will involve the input of new machinery and existing and new contractors and will open up new supply chains. Woodlot licences also have the potential to produce thousands of tonnes of wood that could be used locally as firewood or for small-scale log processing or fed into supply chains for large-scale timber processors and renewable energy generators.
Family forestry is another aspect of any debate about woodlot licences. Woodlot licences can connect many more young families to the resourceful land that we have. Families have been squeezed out of land leasing because most land use is dominated by large-scale industrial agriculture and industrial forestry and because the price of land and forest has been rising. For example, it can cost more than £10,000 for the purchase of just one hectare of forest. Until now, forestry has not had any prospect of a mechanism for leasing land through farm rental as is the case in agriculture but, with woodlot licences, that can change. They will allow small-scale, decentralised forestry to thrive, and will act as an important stepping stone in the creation of a new woodland culture for Scotland in the 21st century.
17:22
I add my congratulations to Aileen McLeod on securing the debate and to Mark Rowe on becoming the first holder of a woodlot licence issued by the Scottish Woodlot Association. I also thank the landowner on the Corsewall estate, Angus Carrick-Buchanan, for having the vision to be involved in this landmark pilot programme.
As Aileen McLeod and Jean Urquhart have outlined, the concept of woodlot licences has been inspired by the situation in British Columbia. The benefits there have been considerable and are inspiring. Woodlot licences have enabled local people to manage areas of state forest as small-scale forest enterprises. They have been proven to bring massive benefits to local economy, empowered rural people, and won many awards for excellence in forest management. It is therefore exciting that the Scottish Woodlot Association has been established to take forward the concept in Scotland in the region that I represent. One of my constituents, Andy Brown, will be a leading figure in the pilot, and I take the opportunity to commend the hard work that he, Will Allen, and everyone involved with the Scottish Woodlot Association have put into bringing the project to fruition.
Forestry and trees are an important part of our cultural and natural heritage. They inspire artists and connect us with our natural environment. Dumfries and Galloway has a fantastic range of forestry and a rich tapestry of different landscapes, which form an important part of the historic environment, as well as contributing hugely to the economy by supporting both forestry and tourism.
Although many of my constituents in the south-west of Scotland rely on woodland in some way, the sad irony is that, until now, few would have the chance to own or manage their own forest. As we have heard, Scotland has the most concentrated forest ownership in Europe. Not for the first time, a glance towards the Nordic countries shows us how things could be done differently and for the better. In those countries forest ownership is dominated by small-scale holdings. As has been said, the average area of private ownership in Norway and Sweden is 40 and 43 hectares respectively, to which our average of 232 hectares does not compare at all favourably.
Scottish woodlot licences provide us with an opportunity to right the situation. They will enable individuals, for the first time, to lease woodland, to gain more experience in forestry, and to share this experience with others in a co-operative way.
One of the most important advantages of that process is that it will engage young people in the sector. Like most rural communities, many communities across the south of Scotland sometimes struggle to provide sustainable employment and suffer depopulation as a consequence. Although forestry is already integral to the economy of Dumfries and Galloway, too often work such as planting and felling is carried out by contractors who rarely use local labour. Woodlot licences offer fresh hope for keeping people living and working in their communities while maximising the economic and social benefits that forestry can bring to an area.
The concept of woodlot licences also fits well with the aims that are set out in Scotland’s first-ever land use strategy. Published in 2011, it outlines principles for sustainable land use and emphasises the importance of linking people with the land, with the overarching aim of bringing about
“the beginning of a process which will change the way that we think and the ways that we work.”
In Scotland, it is clear that that process has already begun. There is ever-growing support for community ownership and management, and in 2013 more than 200 community groups now manage woodland. I believe that Scotland has an exciting opportunity to take the lead in developing and demonstrating new ways of managing forests, and I await future developments with interest. I would like to wish Mark Rowe, Andy Brown, Will Allen and all those who are involved in the Scottish Woodlot Association all the very best with this worthwhile project.
17:26
I add my congratulations to Aileen McLeod on securing the debate. Although it has attracted only a small number of members compared with some debates, it deals with an issue that can affect every part of Scotland. That is why I am pleased to make a few remarks in support of the motion.
The Scottish Woodlot Association would be welcome to come to the north of Scotland. I would be very happy to host it, because a constituent approached me about the difficulties of gaining access to firewood on a private estate and the way in which the Forestry Commission offers firewood licences. The issuing of woodlot licences is a step forward from that, because they are about more than just extraction—they are about management, ecosystems and so on.
The Scottish Woodlot Association is to be hugely congratulated on its efforts. As it says in its briefing, it is a small organisation that has to learn to walk before it can run. We must try to help it to do so in different parts of the country. I think that that would best be done by promoting the excellent example at Corsewall.
In that regard, the briefing paper from Scottish Land & Estates is very enlightened. It welcomes the project’s promotion. Indeed, it says:
“The rise in timber prices, demand for firewood and an increasing awareness of the economic value of previously abandoned woodland on farms and estates will ensure that the SWA has a great future.”
There is a huge amount of woodland that can be managed, and I welcome Alex Fergusson’s remarks about his practical experience on his previous holdings. That situation must be replicated in many parts of the country.
I would like the caveats about getting into more formal lease arrangements that Scottish Land & Estates mentions in the section of its briefing on building confidence to be put aside because, in the first instance, the informality of the woodlot licence arrangements gives them strength. They do not involve the contractual issue that landowners find difficult. Scottish Land & Estates mentions its fear of the threat that people gaining tenants’ rights might turn into some kind of bid for ownership. We should lay that aside. I hope that the land reform process will allow us to get past the stage of thinking that every piece of land must be one that is bought. Although I believe that the issue of hereditary tenants in the farming sector must be given serious consideration, informal leases of the type that we are discussing will not lead to the same situation.
I repeat what I have said in the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee. The Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 ensured that it would be possible to create new crofts without having the ability to buy them, so it is possible to have leases of all sorts without that leading to a demand to buy at some time in the future. We should reassure Scottish Land & Estates on that matter but ask it to be proactive in dealing with existing tenant farming problems.
This represents a great offer for every part of the country, and I hope that the Scottish Woodlot Association thrives. Of course, it has to walk before it can run and I, for one, would be very happy to host it further north. I once again congratulate Aileen McLeod on getting this debate on to the books. I will be taking copies of the Official Report to constituents to let them see what is possible.
17:30
I am most grateful to members for their valuable speeches in this debate and congratulate Dr Aileen McLeod on bringing forward this important issue. I know from my recent visit to the Galloway forest that Aileen McLeod takes a very keen interest in forestry issues, and that interest has been demonstrated by the depth and quality of her speech.
Aileen McLeod’s motion invites us to recognise the establishment of Scotland’s first woodlot licence and the value of encouraging initiatives that enable more people to share in the benefits of Scotland’s trees, woods and forests and through that to contribute to the stewardship of our woodland resources. I should say that I commend the collaboration between the Scottish Woodlot Association and Mr Carrick-Buchanan and will watch its progress with great interest. Breaking new ground and establishing new ways of working require commitment and I am glad to hear that, although the collaboration was initially viewed as a pilot, the aspiration is for it to become a longer-term arrangement.
Given that our nation has used and benefited from several native Canadian trees such as the Sitka spruce and Douglas fir, it is perhaps appropriate that we seek to learn from Canadian forest management techniques. I acknowledge Alex Fergusson’s comment that we should perhaps have invented the idea ourselves, but it is great that it has come to light and I thank the association for bringing it to our attention. Although the Canadian woodlots model has not been imported in its exact form from British Columbia to Dumfries and Galloway and although the scale of the woodlots is perhaps smaller in Scotland, the two approaches share a number of similar aspirations, including a desire to increase people’s involvement in forestry and improve the condition of unmanaged woods. Indeed, that latter point is crucial, given how diseases such as Dothistroma pine needle blight can thrive in poorly managed conifer plantations. This is therefore a very practical measure that can be taken.
The association’s website illustrates the desire of both parties involved in the first licence to make the project work and the clear ambition to reintroduce sustainable forest management to areas of forest that, for whatever reason, have been neglected in the past. I am therefore pleased and greatly encouraged by the fact that private woodland owners are embracing this novel initiative. With 60 per cent of our country’s woodlands in private ownership, there is much scope to develop these kinds of models and apply them more widely with, as a number of members have pointed out, a number of benefits to people and our environment.
Private sector support has been echoed by Scottish Land & Estates, which has told me that it supports this initiative and wants to explore it further with its members. In fact, it has commended the Scottish Woodlot Association for its pragmatic approach to developing this idea. I also applaud the way in which the pilot has sought to marry up people interested and skilled in managing forests with areas of woodland that need such management. It is an example of how to make the best use of another of our country’s greatest assets—its people—in the stewardship of our natural resources.
If managed appropriately and sustainably, our trees, woods and forests can deliver significant benefits. They provide, as Mike MacKenzie, Alex Fergusson and Joan McAlpine have pointed out, economic value from timber products and jobs; provide health and wellbeing benefits to those who use and enjoy them; and are, of course, home to some of our country’s iconic and important wildlife such as the red squirrel and the capercaillie. Our challenge is to ensure that such benefits are available to people across the country, whether they be owners, managers or users. I greatly welcome the fact that, although the issue has been raised in a south of Scotland context, Jean Urquhart, Mike MacKenzie and Rob Gibson have shown support for the initiative and I hope that it is taken forward elsewhere in the country. The link between people and their forest land is a core element of the Scottish Government’s land use strategy, a key objective of which is to promote
“Responsible stewardship of Scotland’s natural resources delivering more benefits to Scotland’s people”,
and this project is as good a demonstration as we can find of that objective in practice.
The commitment to engage people in ways that best suit the participants and circumstances is also a core focus of the Scottish forestry strategy, which has at its heart the principle of
“Forestry for and with people.”
The initiative that we have been debating is an excellent example of what we hope to achieve through the strategies, led and supported by enterprising, energetic and enthusiastic people. It adds to the growing number of approaches that are being taken by woodland owners, whether they are private, community or public woodland owners. It is very good to see such diversity developing. I am also greatly encouraged by the leadership that is being demonstrated by the private sector in helping to deliver our collective ambition to make the forestry resource
“a central part of our culture, economy and environment.”
For the record, I hope that it will be taken into account that it is also possible for community owners to adopt the model and to deploy a similar approach to facilitating woodlots. Perhaps acquiring part of a site that is woodland is not necessarily the core function of their community ownership model, but that is a good way of ensuring that that asset is managed properly and that we can—to address a point that Joan McAlpine raised, I think—try to reverse depopulation in some communities in which that has been a significant issue.
The particular woodlot initiative that we are discussing marks another step in our collective journey to help urban and rural people and their communities to become better connected to the land. The strengthening links between Scotland’s land and its people will help to build resilient communities and make the most of our rich natural assets for all Scotland’s people to flourish.
I will use my remaining time to make a couple of plugs. As we have talked about trees and Joan McAlpine is in the chamber, I remind people that the consultation on Scotland’s national tree is still open. We would welcome any further inputs into that consultation. I also welcome the point that Joan McAlpine made about opportunities to engage young people in the sector. There are important opportunities for training and getting young people into the sector and developing their skills.
Alex Fergusson, Mike MacKenzie and Jean Urquhart talked about small-scale, decentralised forestry operations and the Scandinavian model. Indeed, Jean Urquhart talked about family forestry. Those were all important points. The initiative offers an opportunity to strengthen and facilitate that agenda.
I agree 100 per cent with Mike MacKenzie’s point about the use of timber in construction. That is why I strongly encourage the development of the wood first initiative in our second report on proposals and policies as a means by which we can try to make more use of timber in the construction process. Mike MacKenzie is absolutely right about its low-carbon potential.
Aileen McLeod made valid points about the linkage to tourism and the fact that the 7stanes project across the south of Scotland is a tremendous asset.
Tackling Phytophthora ramorum in larch might not be directly linked to what we are discussing, but, as I mentioned, there is a general message regarding Dothistroma, which is that by managing the forests more appropriately we can manage disease risks in a changing climate.
I will take up Aileen McLeod’s offer to meet the Scottish Woodlot Association at a time that suits it. I am very interested in hearing more from it.
In conclusion, I greatly look forward to following the progress of the first woodlot initiative in Galloway, and most important, I look forward to discovering how it can be taken forward more widely.
I thank Aileen McLeod for bringing the issue to the chamber.
Meeting closed at 17:38.