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Help Trees Help Us submission of 27 January 2022

PE1812/V - Protect Scotland's remaining ancient, native and semi-native woodlands and woodland floors

Scotland’s ancient woodland, Atlantic rainforest, country parks, remote glens, areas of outstanding beauty and farmland are all now being colonised by invasive, non-native, ‘eco-system engineer’ conifer species that already cover around one sixth of our country. Where conifers are not being deliberately planted, they are planting themselves. While countries like New Zealand are spending hundreds of millions of dollars removing invasive conifers, we understand Scotland added around 10,500 hectares of new invasive conifer dominated plantations last year and is aiming for a further 18,000 hectares of Scotland for timber for felling each year by 2024. Faceless investment companies from around the world are piling in to exploit even more of Scotland, out bidding indigenous communities and cashing in on generous Government tree planting and maintenance grants. Farming and local communities are up in arms at the loss of productive land, road safety worries due to timber traffic through villages, community consultations around new afforestation schemes that are an utter sham and the con that is native tree planting next to plantation conifers that rapidly invade, outgrow and destroy them.

Ireland is issuing contracts for the removal of both escaped self-seeded plantation conifers and rhododendron, a non-native, destructive species that is already impacting Scotland’s public purse and nature recovery volunteers.

At the first part of the United Nations’ COP15 biodiversity conference in China (a prelude to the main COP15 Biodiversity Conference in April-May this year) the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity) stated invasive species and destructive land use are two of the five biggest threats to the natural world. The UK law on escaped non-native trees is set out in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It states: ‘..any person who plants, or otherwise causes to grow, any plant in the wild at a place out with its native range is guilty of an offence’. Who is upholding this law? The forestry industry is exempt from it and the industry guidelines on controlling escaped conifers are toothless and ignored. This 41 year old Act must change to reflect the growing scientific understanding of the impact of invasive eco-system engineers, as well as the forestry industry’s inability to manage the risks associated with planting invasive conifers across Scotland.

Could this be why the UK Government in our opinion, appears to have supported only around 240 hectares of commercial conifer forestry in England in 2019/20, while planting 2,000 hectares of native broadleaf trees in the same year? Forestry representatives shout about the UK importing 80% of its timber (the world’s second biggest importer after China). Sadly Scotland’s reputation gets tarred with this terrible statistic but we feel it is England that is the main driver of deforestation in other countries and in our opinion the UK Government shows no inclination to take any responsibility for that while the other three UK nations, especially Scotland, are so willing to ruin their own land for generations to come.

Help Trees Help Us feel it is repugnant that Scotland’s Government, agencies and forestry companies turn an apparent blind eye to their own destruction of Scotland and the degradation and havoc they are creating for our children and wildlife, while seemingly shifting the blame for the heart-breaking condition of the vast majority of our ancient and native woodland onto iconic native species (red and roe deer) that Scotland has exploited for centuries for its tourism and shooting industries.