We haven't given up on land sell-off, insist SNP

Published on Thursday 19 March 2009 21:02

A SELL-OFF of public land to pay for new forests is still on the Scottish Government's agenda, MSPs were told yesterday.

After a government U-turn last week on plans to lease out large tracks of Forestry Commission land for 75 years, Roseanna Cunningham, the new environment minister, told parliament that the "status quo is not an option".

In a debate called by Labour on the future of forestry in Scotland, she said that ways need to be found to pay for a massive programme of tree planting to help tackle climate change.

She told MSPs that the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) of 23 million per year for woodland creation was not enough.

"To achieve our ambition for woodland creation, we must increase this," she said.

"We cannot simply raid other parts of the SRDP pot, or other parts of the Scottish Government budget."

She added: "This is why we are now asking Forestry Commission Scotland to explore further use of well-established arrangements (introduced in 2005] whereby it sells areas of least public benefit to raise money for investment in new woodlands."

The Forestry Commission Scotland currently selects land for sale where there are low public benefits, such as low access and use and no significant natural and cultural assets that would be put at risk.

The original 75-year lease plans were in the Climate Change Bill consultation.

It was proposed because the Scottish Government wants to increase its target of land covered by forests from 17 per cent for 2050 to 25 per cent.