My Lords, it is a challenge to follow a contribution as knowledgeable as that which we have just heard from the noble Lord, Lord Inglewood. I declare my interests as set out in the register, in particular as an owner of both ancient and not-so-ancient woodland. I will speak to Amendments 258, 259 and 260, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone. While understanding their worthy intention, I oppose them, but I give my full support to Amendment 260A of the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, as will become clear.
My reasons for opposing Amendments 258, 259 and 260 are as follows. With regard to Amendment 258, I agree with almost every word that was said by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas. There is much misunderstanding of the words “ancient woodland”. A great many woods listed as “ancient woodland” are not ancient at all, although they may occupy the site of a wood that once met that description.
In England, during the first half of the last century, many of these woods were clear-felled, principally due to the exigencies of war. After the Second World War, many farmers and landowners who were, like others, desperately short of cash, sold or leased their woods to the Forestry Commission, which then planted them according to the norms of the time, which often meant Corsican pine, spruce and similar species, without sufficient regard for their suitability or the location. Much of that woodland has been felled in its turn, and new trees, often native species, have been planted.
All I am saying is that we should be careful about how we envisage ancient woodlands. They are often anything but ancient and often distinctly commercial, so placing them on the same level as an SSSI is not always appropriate and could be distinctly counter- productive if they are to be managed commercially.
Amendment 259 is much more worthy of support, with its objective of preventing the importation of diseases, but I cannot accept a situation where native broad-leaved trees and shrubs are sourced only from UK growers and grown within the UK for their entire life. I will give two reasons. First, with our huge tree-planting ambitions—in particular in urban planting, where more mature trees are required—domestically sourced trees are unlikely to be able to fulfil this requirement for many years, as has already been said by the noble Earl, Lord Devon.
Secondly, surely science and gene editing will steadily improve the safety of imports? With the effects of climate change, we need to look at importing trees grown in more southerly climates, as mentioned by the noble Viscount, Lord Trenchard. Obviously, we need to stringently inspect and test such imports, but please do not forget that ash dieback was spread by wind, not soil.
I was hoping to hear from the proposers of Amendment 260 who would do all the work, and with what resources. Setting out the vision, objectives and
policies is pretty simple, but that cannot be said of assembling the underlying information to see what targets are achieved. No doubt it is fine in the case of woodland and forestry owned by the Forestry Commission and other institutional owners such as the Woodland Trust, but think of the burden that this imposes on private owners without access to the generous taxpayer or charitable or institutional funding. Some of the information required may also be of dubious value. I hate to disagree with the noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, but there is a problem in proposed new subsection 3(c) on woodland creation achieved from natural regeneration. Where I live, the natural regeneration at present is almost exclusively ash, which is unlikely to survive Chalara.
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The concentration on maintenance is vital, but it is an impossible task without serious action being taken to control pests, which is why I support Amendment 260A. In my part of the Chilterns, a large forestry management business is refusing to grow beech again until the grey squirrel is controlled. At present, beech is just squirrel food. This involves tough decisions that are unlikely to be taken if the public have the same negative attitude to killing deer and squirrels as they do to controlling the badger. Also, where is the money coming from? The England woodland creation offer provides support for 10 years, at which point the woodland financed risks joining the huge list of undermaintained woodland not currently eligible for grants.
I am also surprised that Amendment 260 says so little about the importance of newly created commercial forestry. I recommend to all those interested the study by the University of Bangor which has just been published in Nature. It says, first, that
“research contradicts existing opinion that decarbonisation is best served by planting native broadleaves or re-wilding”.
Secondly, it says:
“Climate change mitigation from harvested stands surpasses unharvested stands 100 years after planting.”
Thirdly, it says:
“Newly planted commercial forest can achieve 269% greater climate change mitigation than semi-natural alternatives.”
In summary, this report says that productive new planting can deliver significantly more net carbon benefits than more natural broadleaved systems in the same period—up to two and half times more in some cases. Certainly, we need both commercial and broadleaved woods to achieve carbon sequestration, timber yield and, at the same time, biodiversity.
Finally, we need to recognise that if we want to achieve these massive tree-planting targets, commercial woodland, not amenity woodland, is the key. No doubt there are philanthropic owners who, together with farmers and others, will plant trees either in existing woodland or in field corners supported by ELMS. But in order to attract serious long-term investment, we need a more open approach which recognises that the profit motive is essential. There will be huge demand for timber for the building trade and the like as we try to limit steel and cement due to their carbon footprint. An owner of commercial woodland
can see that, ultimately, the value of his timber will rise substantially. He may not receive a current yield on his investment, but the appreciation will be reflected in the capital value of his woodland or forestry. The same is not the case for amenity woodland. Surely this is the way forward, in that it ticks all the boxes of carbon benefits, biodiversity, supply of a product in great demand and a decent investment. Of course, balance is everything. That is something that is underplayed in Amendments 258 to 260, which is why I oppose them.