Seòmar agus comataidhean

That is very encouraging. I was absolutely hopeless at maths.

You are here because you have lodged this petition. Can you tell us why you thought that the petition was a good idea and what you hope that it will do? Why did you think that it would be a good idea to write to the Scottish Parliament? Was it because we can get things done?

That is great. What are you going to say to her?

I hope that you are going to do some straight talking and not let her flannel you or put you off—make sure that you get straight through it. Essentially, you want everybody to have a reusable water bottle. You have a water bottle with you today—is that the sort of bottle that you are thinking of?

I note that Arina Russell was nodding quite a bit to some of that. Do you want to contribute to this conversation, Ms Russell?

It is a fascinating thing to watch. I have to be honest and say that I walk down the mountains, not up; I tend to go up in a chairlift or a cable car, which allows me to look down on all the people who are doing the biking. A lot of reinforced body armour is associated with it now, because they expect to be thrown off their bikes at various points. However, as you said, it is an Olympic sport; it is one that is very much growing and for which there will be increasing demand. That was an interesting observation about its having an operating authority, which we might want to pursue.

Paul Sweeney, you wanted to come back in—just briefly, because we are coming to the end of our time.

Welcome back. We resume our consideration of PE1812, on Scotland’s remaining ancient, native and semi-native woodlands and woodland floors. We heard just a few moments ago from the petitioners, Audrey Baird and Fiona Baker, and I am now delighted to welcome to a round-table discussion a number of people who will be able to help us with our deliberations.

We have been joined in the committee room by Andrew Weatherall from the RSPB, Arina Russell from the Woodland Trust and Doug Howieson from Scottish Forestry. Joining us virtually are Claudia Rowse from NatureScot and Andy Leitch from Confor. I hope that everybody can see them on the screens, although if you are at the far end of the table, it is quite a reach. I welcome you all.

We hoped that we would be joined by our colleague Jackie Baillie, but she is in another committee meeting and is unable to get here at this point.

This is the first round-table discussion that the committee has held in the current session. It has all been virtual up to now, so it is great to be able to have witnesses with us in person.

Rather than going round everyone on every question, I ask witnesses who want to contribute on a particular issue to catch my eye or the eye of one of the clerks, who will let me know that you would like to comment. Our two witnesses who are participating virtually should put the letter R in the chat box. The clerks will look out for that and they will intimate to me you would like to join the discussion. The microphones will be operated by our broadcasting team, so there is no need for those of you who are in the room to press any buttons or get preoccupied about that.

We heard from the petitioners about the value of ancient native woodlands and whether adequate protections are in place given the big expansion of commercial forestry and the potential that ancient woodlands have for recreational use. What is your reaction, in general terms, to the essence of the petition? What are your views on the biodiversity of ancient, native and semi-native woodlands? What is their value to Scotland? Why are the woodland floors that support them also important? By way of introduction, I will bring in each of you in turn to get your comments on those questions.

Our second virtual participant is Andy Leitch. Welcome to the round table, Andy. I ask you to make a few introductory comments.

First, we will go to Andy Leitch, then to Claudia Rowse, then to Andrew Weatherall, after which we will come back to Paul.

An hour has evaporated pretty quickly. Before I bring the session to an end, I ask each witness to give any reflections on the conversation that we have had or to make a point that they think we have missed or not focused on enough.

Andy Leitch, we have not heard from you for a while, so I will come to you first. You have been able to hear much of what has been said. Would you like to leave us with a final thought?

Out of interest, where is the nearest native ancient woodland to where we are just now?