| 2016-06-06 |    |
England on the Crest of a New Wave of Tree Planting
England could be on the verge of a new tree planting boom after a forestry innovation fund launched by a Government minister at a Confor event received applications to plant more than 1000 hectares of new woodland.
Rory Stewart MP launched the £1 million Forestry Innovation Fund at Modern Forestry: Unleashing the Rural Potential at Westminster last November.
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Now, Forestry
Commission figures have revealed a very strong response
to the fund, which encourages schemes that will promote the growth
of the forest industry in their region and have the support of their
Local Enterprise Partnership.
The Woodland
Creation Planning Grant (WCPG) is financed by the fund,
to address common complaints that significant upfront costs are holding
back potential planting schemes.
The WCPG pilot ran from December 2015 to February 2016. Forestry
Commission England received 11 applications, offering grants to all
applicants and 10 of these offers are being taken forward - relating
to proposals for a total of 1,064 hectares of new productive woodland
and ranging from 33 to 339 hectares in area.
Stuart
Goodall, Chief Executive of Confor, said:
“This is excellent
news, but it is vital that these schemes move to rapid approval.
“If this scheme works as both we and Government hope, then it can
act as a catalyst to drive up new planting in England, which has
been disappointingly low in recent years.”
Mr Goodall, who received confirmation of the £1 million fund in
a letter from Chancellor
George Osborne ahead of last November’s
Westminster conference, added:
“This scheme shows that a relatively
modest sum of money can unlock significant new planting schemes and
we look forward to further innovative approaches by the UK Government.”
Confor’s recently expressed disappointment that only 564 hectares
of new woodland was created in England between April 2015 and March
2016, a fraction of the of the amount needed to meet the Westminster
Government’s annual target of 5,000 hectares. This has led to concerns,
from the nursery sector in particular, of a crisis of confidence
in the forestry sector.
Mr Goodall added:
“We must address the bigger issue of the poor
uptake of the Countryside
Stewardship scheme and the bureaucracy
that is holding back potential planting. What the new figures show
is that innovative schemes can have a big impact - and we need more
of this kind of approach.
“If we can get 1000 hectares of applications within just two months, there is clearly interest out there - and we will work with the Government to tap into that demand and deliver the new planting needed to stimulate England’s rural economies.”
