The below was addressed to Gillian Martin MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action & Rural Affairs; Ivan McKee MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Public Service Reform, Stephen Flynn MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism & Transport; and Jim Fairlie MSP, Minister for Agriculture, Marine & the Islands.
Dear Cabinet Secretaries,
Programme for Government – Scottish Forestry 4 September 2026
We write with concern following the publication of the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government on Tuesday, and what it could mean for woodland creation and management in Scotland. We also request the opportunity to meet with you urgently to discuss the potential implication of these proposals, and alternative possibilities.
The potential merger of several distinct environmental agencies into a single agency, and “potentially Scottish Forestry”, gives us grave cause for concern.
We are by no means against efficiency, and we understand the government’s need to rationalise service delivery and public finances. However, as organisations with a shared focus on woodland and forestry creation and management – activities which are central to Scotland’s Net Zero ambitions, nature restoration ambitions, and our rural economy – we are not clear how your proposals will improve delivery, nor even how they will enable current delivery levels.
Any regulator and grant administrator covering woodland creation and management, the current function of Scottish Forestry, needs to contain technical skills and experience, institutional knowledge of this very broad sector, policy specialism, and staff capacity. These are functions Scottish Forestry fulfils well. However, Tuesday’s statement and publication provides very little information, and no concrete assurances that these functions will continue in the event that Scottish Forestry is absorbed into a larger organisation with a broader focus. We are particularly concerned that any merger could result in the loss of essential forestry expertise from within the government, which would be fundamentally damaging to woodland creation in Scotland.
Indeed, we consider that there are fundamental differences between Scottish Forestry and the other environmental bodies referenced in the Programme for Government. Scottish Forestry is a key delivery body for the Scottish Government’s woodland creation ambitions, providing the specialist technical expertise and capacity to enable planting and forestry activity. The Programme for Government commits to “increasing woodland creation so that, by 2029-30, 18,000 hectares are planted every year, of which at least 40% will be native”, with the aim of reaching 21% woodland cover by 2032. In our view, these targets will be unachievable without the continued presence of a dedicated agency. Recent work to create a routemap towards the tree planting target, which has been developed by our organisations working alongside Scottish Forestry, risks being delayed by a merger at precisely the point when delivery needs to accelerate.
We also consider that any such proposal would mistakenly categorise forestry as purely an environmental activity. Forestry and wood processing are a major part of Scotland’s rural economy and wider economy, with the Scottish Government’s own figures showing the sector generates £1.1 billion in GVA and supports more than 34,000 FTE jobs. Through the UK Forest Standard and felling licencing, Scottish Forestry tightly regulates the industry and seeks to promote economic and broader societal outcomes. In its activity, it is guided by the principles of sustainability which require a balance between these and environmental outcomes.
Furthermore, we are mindful of a similar restructuring in Wales in 2013, which saw Forestry Commission Wales folded into Natural Resources Wales, and subsequently saw a significant loss of institutional forestry expertise as many staff left. Since the merger, Wales has consistently fallen significantly short of its woodland creation ambitions, achieving less than 20% of its planting target, where Scotland consistently exceeds 70%.
Confidence in woodland creation was hit hard by the unexpected and large cut to the budget nearly three years ago, and we have been working with the Scottish Government to rebuild that confidence. We are concerned that losing the specialist function and capacity provided by Scottish Forestry at this time could further significantly undermine confidence to invest, with initial feedback from businesses signalling concern that a merged organisation would see the loss of balanced policy-making across economic and environmental outcomes and wider societal benefits.
We emphasise that we understand the efficiencies you are trying to create, and hope that the points set out in this letter make clear that our position is driven by a desire to continue and build on our delivery against the Scottish Government’s targets for the forestry sector. With that in mind, we are open to exploring alternative approaches that work for government, our sector, climate, nature and the wider Scottish economy.
Yours sincerely,
Alastair Seaman, Director, Woodland Trust Scotland
Stuart Goodall, Chief Executive, Confederation of Forest Industries (Confor)
Louise Simpson, Executive Director, Institute of Chartered Foresters