Associate feature: Forestry and Land Scotland – Getting Fit for the Future

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) manages 9% of Scotland (650,000 hectares) as the Scottish Government agency entrusted with the mission "to look after Scotland’s forests and land, for the benefit of all, now and for the future".   

FLS also functions as a public corporation raising the bulk of our income through commercial activity. As the new Chief Executive my role is to ensure FLS operates as a successful and sustainable business – generating income to maintain and increase forestry’s positive contribution to Scotland’s economy, its people and natural environment. 

In FLS we produce around 40% of Scotland’s annual timber output contributing to a forestry sector that  generates £1.1 billion for the economy each year and supports 34,000 jobs, often in rural areas.

We lease land to key partners that enable 25 windfarms (with 50 more in development) that produce 1217Mw of renewable energy that can power 800,000 homes. These leases bring in valuable income both for us and for communities, and opportunities for improvements to the forests and increased employment. 

Our conservation work ranges from looking after iconic locations such as Glen Affric, to restoring peatland (10,000 hectares to date) and temperate rainforest (one third of the core area is in our care), creating new woodland – 900 ha in '23/'24 - or partnering in projects to save endangered and rare species, such as Scottish Wildcats, capercaillie or red squirrels.

We also foster strong links with communities and consult on each of the 360 Land Management Plans that guide our work. We host over 90 community projects involving over 80 community bodies, and have so far completed 32 community asset transfers that boost rural cohesion and economic opportunity and also improve mental, emotional and physical health and well-being.

Our 300 recreation destinations are visited 11 million times a year, helping to generate over £250 million of rural tourism spend and boosting Scotland’s international image.  

This is just a snapshot of what we deliver across a broad spectrum of economic, environmental and social objectives.

FLS proudly draws on 100 years of history and know how. Looking to the future the context in which forestry operates is changing dramatically, most recently with significant disruption caused by Covid19, a turbulent global timber market, severe weather events and the rising cost of living. 

If we are to continue to deliver for Scotland’s economy, nature and people for generations to come, we need to meet these challenges head on.

That is why, as part of the Scottish Government’s wider public sector reform agenda, we are making ourselves "fit for the future" by improving operational efficiency and flexibility - and working towards long-term financial sustainability. 

Through technical innovation, higher quality management information and improved business planning processes, we will achieve lower-cost sustainable land management, improve performance across the board, transform our approach to procurement and to partnership and to project funding. For example, our multi-million pound investment in our Newton Nursery will enable us to grow around 16 million trees – that’s 66% of our annual requirements – and deliver significant cash savings of around £1m per annum.

We will also continue to invest in our people to ensure that we have and retain the necessary skills, expertise and knowledge to strengthen our future as leading land managers in Scotland, working together towards our vision of forests and land that Scotland can be proud of.

We will take a commercially savvy approach in prioritising what new commitments we can make with our limited resources and be more realistic and pragmatic when determining the scale at which we operate. 

None the less, safe and inclusive public access to our forests and land will not change and we will honour our existing commitments and meet our legal obligations: delivering timber to market when it is needed; prioritising sustainable forest management; contributing to net afforestation; and working to conserve and enhance Scotland’s unique natural capital.

This article is sponsored by Forestry and Land Scotland. 

forestryandland.gov.scot