SCOTLAND LEADS THE WAY IN TREE PLANTING
Tuesday 7th of February 2017: Kate Forbes MSP is joined by the Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office (SCPO) at a parliamentary event to highlight the work of the Meet Your MSP project on Tuesday 7th February 2017 at 6pm. The Meet Your MSP project was launched in June 2016 by SCPO with the aim of breaking down barriers between churches, church groups and their local politicians. The ecumenical initiative encourages churches to meet their MSPs with around 60 events having already taken place including coffee mornings, visits to local projects, and special services among many other things. These have involved people of all ages and all backgrounds across the whole of Scotland from Orkney to the Borders. This event will be an opportunity for churches, church groups and MSPs to share their experience of the project, and to inspire others to take part.
More than 10,000 hectares of new woodland have been planted in Scotland for the first time in almost 20 years, it was announced recently.
Confor h as welcomed the figures – 11,200 hectares of new planting, up from 7,100 the previous year – and called on the forestry industry to maintain the momentum and drive on to meet the next landmark Scottish Government target of 15,000 hectares by 2025.
Stuart Goodall, Confor’s CEO, said: “I’m delighted that we’ve met and gone well beyond our planting target in Scotland. This is great news for the sector, but also for all Scotland now that the First Minister has announced a climate emergency.
“Planting trees locks up carbon and by harvesting and replanting them sustainably, we can produce an infinitely renewable supply of wood with which to build homes and to manufacture an array of everyday products – while also reducing carbon in the atmosphere.
“Scotland is leading the way in the UK, with 84 per cent of all new planting happening in Scotland.
“Confor has worked long and hard with the Scottish Government to get to this point and I truly hope the momentum will be maintained in the coming years. We now need the rest of the UK to move beyond ramped-up rhetoric on a climate emergency and begin to take
the positive action that we see in Scotland.”
Confor has set a target of 18,000 hectares of new planting annually in Scotland by 2030 as part of its ambitious but achievable targets to drive up UK-wide planting to help mitigate climate change – part of Confor’s campaign #ThinkGlobalPlantLocal.
