PE1812/T: Protect Scotland's remaining ancient, native and semi-native woodlands and woodland floors
The Woodland Trust is UK’s leading woodland conservation charity working to protect, create and restore native woodland. We engaged with the Public Petitions committee in the previous parliamentary session regarding PE812 and welcomed the Committee’s thorough consideration of the petition at that time. The petition is now getting picked up at the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee and as the case for ancient woodland protection has evolved over the last few months, the Trust is providing a further, up to date, written submission for the new Committee to consider. The petition raises issues which the Woodland Trust has been advocating for many years now: ancient woodland does not have enough protection from inappropriate development in the current planning system, or protection from other threats such as overgrazing, and this irreplaceable habitat continues to get fragmented and chipped away at.
So far the Scottish Government response has been inadequate given the importance of ancient woodland to biodiversity and to carbon sequestration despite the Forestry Strategy for Scotland recognising that:
All Scotland’s forests, woodlands and associated open ground habitats provide some biodiversity value. However, suitably managed native, and in particular ancient and semi-natural woodlands, including appropriately restored plantations on ancient woodland sites (PAWS), will contribute the most.
The Woodland Trust’s landmark State of Woods and Trees report, launched in April 2021, has presented new data showing that Scotland’s ancient and long-established woodlands store 30% more carbon per hectare than the average carbon stores for other woodland types. These woods are vital in meeting our climate change and woodland expansion target. A comparison between the Native Woodland Survey for Scotland with the Scottish Ancient Woodland Inventory showed a significant reduction in ancient woodland over a 40-year period of 14.2% of ancient woodland loss due to inappropriate management of ancient woodlands. To put it simply, how can Scotland meet it’s woodland expansion targets if we are losing existing woodland cover. While creating more woodland, we must ensure that we look after existing woods as well.
The SNP manifesto at the May 2021 elections commits to the creation of an Ancient Woodland Register and the Scottish Government-Scottish Greens shared policy programme further emphasizes this and states ‘further protect Scotland’s ancient woods through establishing a National Register of Ancient Woodlands, and by encouraging owners and managers to maintain them and improve their condition, providing support through the Forestry Grant Scheme.’
We welcome these commitments, but it must also be noted by the Committee that Scotland already has an Ancient Woodland Inventory, which sits with NatureScot, and is currently out of date due to lack of resources and priority to manage this Inventory. A first step in protecting and better managing ancient woodlands is to improve the data quality for them: knowing where they are and what condition they are in. The Woodland Trust is unclear what an Ancient Woodland Register would look like, but we believe that a good place to start is to update the current Ancient Woodland Inventory dataset and the Trust is ready to work with NatureScot and Scottish Forestry, as the relevant statutory agencies, to provide resource and expertise to ensure that the commitment for an Ancient Woodland Register is delivered in well-resourced and robust way that will lead to better protection of ancient woods. The Scottish Parliament must also ensure that the Scottish Government delivers on its commitment in this way.
Improving existing data is one side of the coin. Alongside this we also need appropriate grant support for woodland management, and policy support. The next best opportunity to improve protection for ancient woodland in the planning system is through the upcoming National Planning Framework 4 which is expected to be scrutinised by the Local Government and Housing Committee. The review of the current Biodiversity Strategy provides the opportunity to improve policies related to management of ancient woodlands and addressing the key threats to this habitat: plantations on ancient woodland sites (PAWS), deer management and invasive rhododendron ponticum.
From the data available on extent and condition of native woodland it is clear that not enough action is being taken to address the main threats to our ancient woodland. The Scottish Parliament Committees need to ensure that the policies in the upcoming National Planning Framework 4 and the Biodiversity Strategy are affording ancient woodland the strongest levels of protection and appropriate managements to ensure no further loss of this irreplaceable habitat.