Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I welcome today's debate as an opportunity to discuss what, it seems, are shared ambitions for the woodlands of Wales. The Welsh Government has accepted all but one of the recommendations, and I'm making sure that we are starting to act on them. The committee chair has written to me, asking for some clarification on the Government's response, but I felt it would be useful to hear what Members have said in this debate before responding to the letter and the work of the committee. And of course I'd welcome ongoing dialogue on this issue.

I'd like to thank the committee for a report that has been helpful and has well-informed recommendations. It has helped focus my thinking and firm up my view that improving and expanding the woodlands of Wales would be amongst my top priorities as environment Minister. To that end, one of my very first meetings as Minister was with the Confederation of Forest Industries. Stakeholders were clear in this meeting that we do need to maximise the opportunities provided by Brexit for the forestry sector, and consider the role forestry and foresters can play in our future land management approach.

Land use change is inevitable, and I think we must use all of our levers, in terms of policy, money and regulation, to make sure that these changes are for the better. We want to use our land to deliver additional public goods, and this is vital if we are to meet our commitment to resilient ecosystems and decarbonisation in the Environment (Wales) Act 2016. I will now seek to address a number of the key issues raised by the committee in their report, in correspondence and during today's debate—including new planting, the resilience of woodlands, timber supply, the role of communities and decarbonisation. 

Clearly, we need to begin with new planting, and the committee asked what specifically we should do differently. I'm acutely aware that not enough trees are being planted. Wales needs a mix of woodlands. Our forests should be a combination of large scale and small scale, containing conifer and broad-leaf species, and a mix of commercial forestry and peaceful, biodiverse, natural environments. But I recognise that conflict can exist between these aims, and I am keen to work with stakeholders to understand the issues and find a means to resolve them. This is likely to involve taking a place-based approach, because not every type of woodland is right for every part of Wales, and woodland creation cannot just be delivered through Glastir or Government alone. Creation of woodland at scale requires co-operation, collaboration, involvement of innovation and involvement of a range of interested parties. This is why we have established a co-operative forest planning scheme to support strategic approaches driven by stakeholders to find the right places to plant new woodland and what to plant there. I acknowledge that there will be challenges, but the first stage of the co-operation has begun, and I encourage participants to continue in these efforts.

I also want to explore the role of regulation as a barrier. We have asked NRW to look carefully at the way they work so that they can clear away complexity and identify opportunities for new woodland planting. I was really interested in the ideas put forward by the committee, including the possibility of a presumption in favour of approval for woodland in certain areas. I will also ensure we strengthen the guidance on the woodland opportunities map, building on feedback from users about the places where woodland creation can do the most good. We must also reflect on the interaction between forestry and our systems of agricultural support. We have paid over £2 million through Glastir for woodland creation to date. Farmers who plant trees get annual payments and continue to receive base payment for some 12 years after planting, but we are constantly looking for new ways to improve the application process for Glastir, and we will build on the lessons in the design of future support mechanisms. Brexit brings challenges for Wales across the piece, but also brings an opportunity to redesign support systems to remove biases against forestry. We can clearly do more, and I intend to visit Scotland in the new year to learn more from the relative success they had in creating new woodland there. 

If we now look to tree health and resilience, the woodland strategy advocates the diversification of woodlands through improved resilience. The lesson of the phytophthora ramorum outbreak in larch and of ash dieback is that we cannot afford to rely on just a few tree species. We want our woodlands to be more diverse and resilient, and there is a wealth of advice and training available to woodland owners from Forest Research, NRW and through Farming Connect. But we also make sure that we are quick to restore woodlands when they have been damaged, and that we support the management of diseased woodlands through the Glastir woodland restoration scheme.

Turning to timber production, we should also take steps to make existing woodland more productive. An important part of this can be bringing unmanaged woodlands into management, increasing the production of useable timber and supporting the development of local businesses. I'm keen to work with my Cabinet colleagues and stakeholders to build a sustainable supply chain for timber and increase demand for Welsh wood products and biomass, enabling Welsh companies to trade freely, get best value for their green products and support green jobs.

We have taken steps to promote timber through the innovative housing programme and a new cross-Welsh Government group to study supply chains. As part of this, I want to explore the case for a timber-first principle for Welsh housing and other construction. And I've already spoken to the Minister for housing about this, and there will be a new ministerial group to take such things forward.

Beyond economics, we must not forget about the value that communities can draw from our woodlands. Our communities should have the chance to be involved in the management of their local woodlands. I've heard some particularly good examples today from my colleagues Vikki Howells and Jayne Bryant, and I'd love to hear more about them, to see how we can share that best practice as part of our strategy going forward. Over the past few years we've supported Llais y Goedwig, a network of community woodland groups across Wales that helps communities engage with woodland management.

The Welsh Government declined the committee's recommendation to impose a single target for urban tree planting across all local authorities. Instead, we want to see local targets reformed by an expansion in the use of the i-Tree eco-tool for monitoring urban trees and woodlands, ensuring that the right solutions happen in the right places.

Finally, forestry can also play an important role in delivering our decarbonisation aims. In 2015 the forestry sector removed around 1 per cent of Welsh emissions, acting as a carbon sink. Increasing stores of carbon in woodland gives us a nature-based solution that reduces emissions, prevents flooding, improves air quality and provides us with a good-quality—