Forestry

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 24 January 2017.

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Photo of Alexander Burnett Alexander Burnett Conservative

I note my registered interest regarding forestry and biomass heating.

The forestry sector has long been the backbone of our rural economy. Throughout Scotland, forests provide jobs and income for many people. Given that forests play such a key role, one would think that it would be a priority of the Scottish Government to ensure that we have enough skilled professionals to keep the sector alive. However, time and again, the Scottish Government has failed to train the next generation and we now face an ever-widening gap between demand for and supply of skilled labour. That is totally unacceptable.

I am not a lone voice on that. In response to the Scottish Government’s future of forestry consultation, Aberdeenshire Council laid it bare. It stated that the Scottish Government should not be following the path in which it underrepresents the commercial and economic impact of forestry. In the same consultation, those stakeholders who truly know the sector talked of the increasing centralisation of policy.