Woodland creation targets on agricultural land: EIR release

Information requested

Information regarding woodland creation targets on agricultural land, or a 'trees on farms' target.

The Climate Change Monitoring Report, Chapter 7: Agriculture, Policy outcome 6 (area of woodland on agricultural land) assessment is "on track" for this indicator.

1. Can you please advise what, if any, the target is for woodland creation or cover on agricultural land; and

2. What metrics were used to determine the 'on track' assessment?

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

1. The Scottish Government does not have a specific target for woodland creation or cover on agricultural land. Current Woodland Creation targets are set out in the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Plan update, and woodland creation on agricultural land contributes to these targets. Information on latest performance is available here: Scottish Forestry - High levels of woodland creation recorded in Scotland. The agricultural community is demonstrating a keen interest in integrating trees into their businesses, and of the 300 woodland creation projects in Scotland last year, around half were taken forward by farmers, crofters, or other small-scale landowners.

2. The policy to ‘Increase woodland cover on suitable agricultural land’ as set out in the Climate Change Plan update allows for trends in woodland cover data to indicate the direction of travel of the policy. The area of woodland on agricultural land indicator was assessed as being on track as woodland on agricultural land had increased over time, showing a positive trend. Please refer to
Figure 1, which shows Forestry Statistics 2023 woodland data for the UK from 1998 to 2023. This data shows that Scotland has the largest number of woodlands compared to the rest of the UK.

Figure 1: Area of woodland, UK, 1998 to 2023 data
Source: Forestry Commission, Forestry England, Scottish Forestry, Forestry and Land Scotland, Welsh Government, Natural Resources Wales, Forest Service, National Forest Inventory
Shorthand: 1 ha = 1 hectare
Year	England (million ha)	Wales (million ha)	Scotland (million ha)	Northern Ireland (million ha)	UK (million ha)
1998	1.24	0.30	1.30	0.08	2.92
1999	1.25	0.30	1.31	0.08	2.94
2000	1.25	0.30	1.32	0.08	2.95
2001	1.26	0.30	1.33	0.08	2.97
2002	1.26	0.30	1.34	0.08	2.99
2003	1.27	0.30	1.35	0.09	3.00
2004	1.27	0.30	1.35	0.09	3.01
2005	1.28	0.30	1.36	0.09	3.02
2006	1.28	0.30	1.36	0.09	3.03
2007	1.28	0.30	1.37	0.09	3.04
2008	1.29	0.30	1.37	0.09	3.05
2009	1.29	0.30	1.38	0.09	3.05
2010	1.29	0.30	1.38	0.09	3.06
2011	1.29	0.30	1.38	0.09	3.07
2012	1.30	0.30	1.40	0.11	3.11
2013	1.30	0.31	1.41	0.11	3.13
2014	1.30	0.31	1.42	0.11	3.14
2015	1.31	0.31	1.43	0.11	3.15
2016	1.31	0.31	1.44	0.11	3.16
2017	1.31	0.31	1.44	0.11	3.16
2018	1.31	0.31	1.45	0.11	3.17
2019	1.32	0.31	1.46	0.11	3.20
2020	1.32	0.31	1.47	0.12	3.22
2021	1.32	0.31	1.48	0.12	3.22
2022	1.32	0.31	1.49	0.12	3.24
2023	1.33	0.31	1.49	0.12	3.25

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