How Forestry Favours the Wealthy “Super-rich buying up the forests of Scotland” declaimed newspaper headlines recently – with The Times reporting “Scotland’s forest land in danger of becoming an offshore tax haven for the super-rich”. Those of us who can …
Forestry for the Common Good
As forestry stakeholders meet Fergus Ewing, Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy and Connectivity, today to discuss the Future of Forestry, the Forest Policy Group is highlighting 5 key themes which we believe must be central to future forestry development …
A Journey to Owning a Small Scottish Woodland
This is the first in a new series of blog posts highlighting stories of small woodland ownership. Scotland is a country where forests are mainly owned in large expensive units and where ordinary people wishing to own a small woodland …
How to create LOTS of forest owners…..
Kinachreachan Forest Andy Wightman, in a 2012 scoping study on forest1 ownership in Scotland, observed that Scotland out of 19 European countries had the dubious distinction of having the most concentrated forest ownership pattern; and that Scotland’s forest ownership is …
Land Reform – Facts or Prejudices?
Earlier this week, Environment Minister Dr Aileen McLeod said that the benefits of the new Land Reform Bill would be “potentially life-changing for individuals and communities across Scotland”. Ahead of the latest meeting of the Rural Affairs, Climate Change …
Our lovely hills? Time to think again
There’s plenty of debate about the uplands these days – including issues of land ownership, raptor persecution, re-wilding, deer and grouse moor management, plantation forestry, renewables and peatland restoration. Much of this is about keeping the hills as they are, …
A bright future for hutting in Scotland?
Posted by Karen Grant, Reforesting Scotland and A Thousand Huts Campaign Last June’s inclusion of huts in the new Scottish Planning Policy amounted to just a few words. But one small step for planning policy is a giant leap for …
Opportunities for forestry in a time of constitutional change
Now that the dust has settled after the referendum it is clear that the wider outcomes are more far reaching than the actual vote – Scotland has been changed by the process. The appetite for constitutional change among a large …