Forestry & Timber: Growing a Resilient Scotland

Scotland’s forestry and wood manufacturing sector creates jobs and drives investment into our rural communities. It also reduces our carbon footprint, helps protect vulnerable communities from flooding and provides valuable, attractive habitats for wildlife and recreation.

Forestry and timber contributes £1 billion annually to Scotland’s economy. Wood processing businesses are investing more than £50 million of new money every year in Scotland and the success of the sector was illustrated in January 2016 when Norbord announced a new investment of close to £100m in its panelboard factory near Inverness. However, continued investment needs a constant supply of new timber; that means planting more trees, but at the moment Scotland is struggling to meet its planting targets.