Jamie Farquhar: Modern forestry needs modern leaders with an innovative outlook

For any industry to be successful, it needs strong leaders, brilliant innovators and great communicators. Forestry and wood processing is no different and as the industry grows and matures, we have chosen to recognise excellence in all these areas.
Jamie Farquhar is National Manager for Scotland for forestry and wood trade body, ConforJamie Farquhar is National Manager for Scotland for forestry and wood trade body, Confor
Jamie Farquhar is National Manager for Scotland for forestry and wood trade body, Confor

Every year, Confor honours an outstanding individual who has made a real difference with the Dedicated Service to Forestry Award, presented at its annual dinner. In 2020, we also rewarded individuals who have shown exceptional skills in leadership, innovation and communication.

All the professionals shortlisted for these new awards shared another crucial quality for any industry to succeed: the ability to work collaboratively and build partnerships.

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While Confor is the voice of the private forestry and wood processing sector – representing more than 1,500 businesses across the UK – we recognise that making progress depends on building strong relationships.

That’s why we work with organisations like The Woodland Trust, recognising that our shared interest in planting millions more trees is far greater than our specific objectives.

We have also worked with the Woodland Trust, as well as friends at the Institute of Chartered Foresters and Royal Forestry Society, on a post-Brexit position statement for forestry.

And we have cooperated with Friends of the Earth, which has put tree planting at the heart of its campaigning agenda and wants to double UK tree cover, currently just 13 per cent (one-third of the European average, although Scotland is doing better at 19 per cent).

The shortlisted finalists in our new awards were all excellent partnership builders.

Mima Letts, winner of the Changing Attitudes category, embodies this. She set up Tree Sparks as a forestry student, with the aim of offering young people a real insight into forestry careers. She has worked with a supportive industry and wider forestry sector to make this happen – and at the same time, helped slay the myth of what a forester looks like in 2020. As we approach International Women’s Day [Sunday 8 March], the forestry sector is once again employing the hashtag #ILookLikeAForester to celebrate the increasingly high-profile role of women in the industry.

Confor shares Mima Letts’ desire to attract a diverse range of young people into forestry and wood processing. As we plant more trees in the coming decades in response to the climate emergency, we will need more people to plant trees, to manage forests and to ensure that we use the latest technology and skills to ensure they are planted and managed to the highest levels of sustainability.

Modern, productive forests that supply timber to Scotland’s wood processing sector – which has invested hundreds of millions in our rural areas over the last decade – are planted to the UK Forest Standard, which ensures new planting is sensitive and sustainable, delivering for our environment AND our economy.

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A survey in 2015 showed more than 25,000 people worked in forestry and wood processing in Scotland, adding £1 billion in economic value every year. These figures are now five years old and will definitely be higher as the industry expands.

That’s why we need great communicators to attract new people into forestry and to satisfy the public demand for more trees. Annual surveys repeatedly show that well over 90 per cent of people want to see more trees planted.

We also need brilliant innovators to add ingenuity and value all along the supply chain – from the quality of seed used to create new trees to hi-tech sawmill control rooms, which are about as far away from the 
stereotypical image of a forester as you can imagine.

The innovators shortlisted for our awards were an extremely varied group – from the team at Forest Research’s base in Midlothian to a business creating imaginative new wood products and, the winner, a long-serving haulage manager with sawmiller James Jones & Sons who has dedicated his career to improving the health, safety and welfare of drivers in many innovative ways.

Innovation, communication, leadership and collaboration. These four qualities run through forestry like rings run through a log – helping us to shape a future industry, full of talented people, that can plant tens of millions more trees and deliver great things for our economy and our environment.

Jamie Farquhar is National Manager for Scotland for forestry and wood trade body, Confor

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