The development of the British-grown timber processing industry is undoubtedly a good news story, one of endeavour and success. Continued investment by softwood sawmillers has resulted in a doubling of market share over 20 years to about 40%, largely by displacing imports. At the same time this has supported the sustainable management of forests.
So you would think that the future should be rosy for UK producers, yet there is a very dark cloud on the horizon, which should concern us all.
UK forests will reach peak production around 2030. Thereafter production declines. Recently published forest inventories and forecasts of availability, for both the public and private sectors, bring the stark message home very plainly.
Businesses require confidence if they are to continue to invest and in our sector, one of the principal ingredients of confidence is continuity of wood supply. This hadn’t been an issue previously, but now new commercial planting is beset by obstacles and unless this is addressed, businesses will be in jeopardy.
We need an official presumption in favour of forestry, not obstacles. Consider this; until planting took place on a farm in Northumberland earlier this year, (which was only achieved after a considerable struggle), there hadn’t been any new commercial conifer planting in England for five years, a scandalous situation. Britain still has one of the lowest levels of tree cover in Europe, despite successive governments agreeing that we need more trees and should be using more wood and wood products.
A profitable forest products sector is essential to provide returns to timber growers, thereby helping to defray the costs of delivering a range of non-market benefits. Sustainably managed forests deliver valuable economic, social and environmental benefits indefinitely, although it is unhelpful that negative messaging about conifers persists in some quarters.
Devolution is making a difficult situation potentially more so. For forestry it has been a double-edged sword, with the sector regrettably and perhaps inevitably, becoming something of a political football. The mismatch between long forestry timescales and very short political horizons triggers a range of problems.
Forestry policy in Scotland, England and Wales is diverging rapidly. Scotland appreciates commercial forestry and its importance to ‘Scotland plc’, (although ambitious planting aspirations aren’t being met), whereas in England there is continuing uncertainty over both the government’s objectives for the public forest estate and the creation of a new body responsible for its management in place of the Forestry Commission, which has had the job since 1919.
In Wales, the Forestry Commission is no more and the new body, Natural Resources Wales, has yet to find its feet in terms of forestry. As it is one step removed from the Welsh Government, this presents problems too. There can be little doubt that without the Forestry Commission, we wouldn’t have today’s impressive wood processing industry in Great Britain.
So far, the UK forestry and forest products sector presents a success story; let’s hope it will have a bright future too, but the clock is ticking away and we need more of the right trees in the right places now.
