Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:55 pm on 13 December 2017.
I would welcome that because I think it's more honest and allows us to perhaps have that dialogue and sometimes creative tension that would emerge in a different way forward perhaps, but simply washing us in whitewash, if you like, or a bit of wool pulled over our eyes that we are being supported when we're not, I think is less beneficial. So, let's watch that one.
I think one of the things that we have to recognise in Wales is that we are under-wooded, if I can put it that way. We have huge opportunities for more woodland development, and we have missed our targets, as has already been mentioned, for quite some time now. But I think one of the things that really surprised me during this inquiry was the strong feeling and response from investors that Wales was closed for woodland development, particularly on the commercial side. I didn't want us to give that message and I didn't think we were giving that message, to be honest, but in practice that's what people were saying, and that's why we make the recommendation in the committee that perhaps within a mapping system—by which, of course, you map for environmental sensitivities—you can then have a much stronger presumption in favour of development. And I wonder whether a wider adaptation of the UK wood assurance scheme would give some environmental assurances in that and allow for commercial development—the sort of mixed commercial development that we see these days—to go ahead.
Glastir has got very little money in it, as I'm sure any Minister would say, but it's also plagued at the moment by some delays. Only this morning I was contacted by Hugh Wheeldon & Co, a wood processing company in Carmarthenshire, saying they've had several Glastir applications that they think have to now be withdrawn because of the severe delays in that process. So, I think, when we go into the details of this, we see that the Government is, through its operations, also not realising the real benefits for woodland development in Wales.
I think we have to really work hard, obviously, on the Government around the 20 per cent for urban canopy; I think that will be hugely beneficial for our well-being and also for mitigating climate change, because some of our towns and cities—hard to believe today, I know, but some of our towns and cities can get very hot and tiresome in the summer these days, and tree cover is very beneficial for our citizens.
And the final thing that I think we need to look at is what would be the Government's ongoing proposals for land management. We're leaving the European Union, the common agricultural policy is coming to an end, forestry hasn't traditionally been supported in that manner, but now if we're taking a more coherent and cohesive view of what land management should be, and what the benefits should be, both in commercial and environmental terms, then we can see perhaps opportunities here for support for woodland development, woodland management, protection of ancient woodlands, certainly, but also I am clearly of the view that there are parts of Wales that will see land use change now. There are parts of Wales that are marginal sheepland or marginal ffridd that could come back into woodland; they were cleared probably at the end of the ice age, and maybe they'll come back again. We will see changes in our landscape as a result of leaving the European Union. I would want those to be beneficial changes that help our economy and help our environment more widely, and I think woodland development is one of the clear things that we can support in that regard.