Forestry and woodlands

A Trees for Life project in partnership with the National Trust for Scotland to establish new seed sources for rare mountaintop trees in Glen Affric has received more than £125,000 from the Scottish Government's Biodiversity Challenge Fund.      

Additional £1m available through new Agricultural Transformation Programme.

Farmers and crofters are being offered £1 million in funding to diversify into forestry and help with the fight against climate change.

The money is the first batch of funding from the Agriculture Transformation Programme, a key Programme for Government commitment that aims to support the agriculture sector in helping Scotland meet its greenhouse gas emissions targets. 

Trees for Life has submitted a planning application for the world’s first rewilding centre at its 10,000-acre Dundreggan estate in Glenmoriston, between Loch Ness and the Isle of Skye.

An additional £1 million has been allocated for projects that improve timber transport links, helping the forestry sector get timber to market.

The annual search to find Scotland’s finest farm woodlands has begun - with two prizes of £1000 up for grabs.

Scotland’s Finest Woods Awards 2020 celebrates the programme’s 35th anniversary and builds on its biggest-ever year in 2019, with both farm woodland competitions returning after a fierce contest in 2019.

There is an ‘open’ Farm Woodland category and a specific award for younger farmers or crofters (and/or their forest managers) aged between 16 and 40 on deadline day, 31st March.

Rural projects that protect the environment and mitigate the impact of climate change will share £34 million.

A total of 472 businesses will benefit from the latest award of Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) funding, which promotes environmentally friendly land management practices and looks to protect and enhance Scotland’s natural heritage.

This brings the total committed to rural businesses under AECS since 2015 to more than £211 million, benefiting almost 3,000 applicants.

Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said:

Scottish Forestry has launched a new spatial data hub providing access to information helpful to foresters, land managers, developers, teachers, students, researchers and others. 

The Open Data hub offers 70 geospatial data sets and is downloadable for use in Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

The Scottish Government has started early engagement on the development of Scotland's fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4).

The National Planning Framework is a long term plan for development and investment across Scotland.