Trees planted in Scotland in the last 5 years: EIR release

Information requested

Data and analysis about how many trees have been planted in Scotland in the last five years, with a breakdown per year, and include how many trees have been cut down.

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.

Please see below for some of the information we hold in relation to your request. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 10(4)(a) (Information not held at time of request) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested.

Could you provide the data and analysis about how many trees have been planted in Scotland in the last five years, with a breakdown per year?

We do not collect data on the number of trees planted across Scotland. The hectarage of trees planted under the current iteration of the Forestry Grant Scheme since its inception in 2015 is available on our website at https://www.forestry.gov.scot/publications/support-and regulations/forestry-grant-scheme/forestry-grant-scheme-statistics; at time of writing, the most recent publication is from May 2024.

Please note that these figures will not include planting undertaken by Forestry and Land Scotland on Scotland’s nationally-owned land and forests, or by private landowners who may undertake planting without support from Scottish Forestry.

Include how many trees have been cut down?

This information is not held by Scottish Forestry, as we only collect data on trees felled under individual Felling Permissions, and this information is held in our case management system and used for case management purposes only; it is not collated, and cannot be collectively reported. We do not collect the number of trees to be felled under a Long-Term Forest Plan, which accounts for a large proportion of all trees felled.

We also do not collect data on trees felled under planning permissions; this information may be held by local authorities.

I note that where a felling permission application or long-term forest plan proposes to clear fell, selective fell, or fell individual trees (as opposed to managing the woodland via thinning or coppicing), if the application is approved we will normally require that the area in question be restocked with trees in accordance with our Felling Permission Guidance. Approved felling is therefore typically not a net loss to woodland creation, as the area will subsequently be reforested.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.