The next item, therefore, is the debate on the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee report: 'Branching out: a new ambition for woodland policies'. I call on the committee Chair, Mike Hedges.  

Motion NDM6611 Mike Hedges

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

Notes the report of the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, 'Branching out: a new ambition for woodland policies', which was laid in the Table Office on 28 July 2017.

Motion moved.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I'm delighted to open today’s debate on the report from the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee on our inquiry into woodland policies in Wales. I want to thank the previous Chair of the committee, Mark Reckless, and former members of the committee, Vikki Howells, Siân Gwenllian and Huw Irranca-Davies, for the work they did on this report, most of which was carried out before I became Chair of the committee. 

Our report is based on expert opinion from stakeholders from industry and environmental groups. The committee also visited the Spirit of Llynfi Woodland in Maesteg, where they spoke to people where they spoke to people who are organising community participation in woodlands. I'm grateful to all those who took their time to contribute to this inquiry.

Overall, the inquiry found that stakeholders generally felt the policy direction of the Welsh Government’s strategy 'Woodlands for Wales' was appropriate.  However, they all called for it to be refreshed, urgently, in order to significantly increase planting rates.

We made 13 recommendations. I am pleased that the Welsh Government has accepted 12 of those recommendations either in full or in principle. However, the committee was disappointed with a subsequent exchange of correspondence with the Minister for the environment. The committee wrote to the Cabinet Secretary in early October to ask for clarification of the responses to several recommendations in advance of this debate. The committee wrote for a second time to emphasise the importance of receiving clarification of the responses in advance of this debate. The Minister said that she would respond fully to the issues raised during the debate.

Turning back to our report, the committee’s recommendations come under three broad themes: increasing planting and growing the commercial forestry sector; increasing access to and community benefits from woodlands; and taking full advantage of the environmental benefits of more trees.

On more planting, the need to significantly increase planting rates was the key priority for all our stakeholders. In 2010 the Welsh Government’s climate change strategy called for an average planting rate of 5,000 hectares every year. By 2015 the total of new planting had only reached 3,200 hectares. This enormous deficit led the industry body to tell us that woodland creation in Wales has been a catastrophic failure.

What are the barriers to planting? According to the commercial forestry sector, the greatest barrier to woodland planting was what they described as the overly rigorous enforcement of environmental impact assessment regulations. We were pleased that the Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales recognised that this is a problem and we recommended that progress should be made as a matter of urgency.

Farmers told us they are deterred from planting woodland because the Glastir woodland schemes are too complex and prescriptive and the payments are low relative to payments received for agricultural land. We believe that there is an opportunity in future to reconsider the approach to payments, including payment for ecosystem services—such innovations could incentivise planting.

There are many positives: the Glastir woodland opportunities map, which shows areas most suited to new woodland creation, is a good starting point. It has the potential to be developed into a decision-making tool. If it can be aligned with the regulatory process and local authority planning, it could become an enabler of woodland creation on the ground. One example of this would be if regulatory barriers could be relaxed for areas identified by the map as areas most suitable for woodland creation. Something else that could perhaps be beneficial is when we have local development plans, they could actually identify land within the local development plan that would be suitable for the planting of forestry. While it is not a necessity in order to plant forestry there, it will identify, for people who wish to plant forestry, areas that have been deemed to be suitable, without having to go searching through a whole range of other pieces of information—all available from the Welsh Government. Keep it simple: look at one thing and find it and that'll make, I think, a big difference. So, the Glastir woodland opportunities map has tremendous opportunities.

Turning to the commercial sector, we heard about constraints brought about by low planting and restocking rates. We were greatly concerned by the impact of this on the future of Welsh sawmills and on rural communities. I think we all recognise that one of the weaknesses of the rural Welsh economy is that we do not get sufficient high-value processing out of our raw materials. We develop, both in agriculture and forestry, the raw materials, but the big money is made by the people who do the processing. Further along, it is made well outside Welsh rural communities and, in most cases, well outside Wales. The Welsh Government must actively support the commercial forestry sector in Wales to realise its full potential. We recommended that the Welsh Government should consider changing building regulations to promote the use of timber in construction. 

Social benefits is the second theme explored in the committee’s report. Woodlands have a significant role to play in regenerating former industrial areas. The committee saw this first-hand when they visited the Spirit of Llynfi Woodland in Maesteg. This project is a real inspiration: it shows what can happen when dedicated volunteers receive the support and funding from local and national decision makers to bring about a complete transformation of what was contaminated wasteland. We have an awful lot of contaminated wasteland in Wales, so these opportunities exist across a large part of the older industrial areas of Wales. They have also benefited from private sector funding from Ford. We want to build on this and recommend that the Welsh Government assesses the potential of developing a national forestry company to regenerate the south Wales Valleys. 

Trees and urban areas have substantial environmental, social and economic benefits. More needs to be done to increase canopy cover. We recommended that the Welsh Government should set out a plan to achieve at least 20 per cent tree cover by 2030. Unfortunately, this recommendation has been rejected, so I will be interested to hear the Minister’s alternative plan for increasing canopy cover in these areas.

Finally, on environmental benefits, the final theme is creating more woodlands. The benefits are obvious and should be the main driver of our push to plant more, given our statutory responsibility for sustainability. Trees can mitigate the effects of climate change, trapping carbon into useable timber. They also reduce the risk of flooding from excessive rain. This is why we recommended that the Welsh Government should incentivise planting upstream from flood-prone areas.

I think very few Assembly Members will not know of areas that used to be covered in trees and somebody decided to chop the trees down, either to build or to make the area look better or to get a better garden, and then they can't quite understand why there's flooding when there hasn't been flooding in the previous 100 years. Trees are wonderful at sucking up water and stopping flooding occurring. 

Following Brexit, we will be able to direct funding towards more sustainable activity by landowners, including planting more trees. This is why we recommended that future funding should be based on sustainable outcomes. The committee would like an update on the Cabinet Secretary’s discussions with NRW to develop a system for funding positive changes for wildlife, water quality, flood-risk reduction, health and well-being.

In conclusion, there are substantial benefits from woodlands, which we are not realising fully. We are not realising the environmental gains from mitigating climate change, preventing flooding, and increasing the availability of sustainable timber. We are also missing out on the social benefits of woodlands for the health and well-being of those who live near them. We are not ensuring that those benefits will be available for people living in urban areas, where trees are most needed and valued. We know that woodlands can regenerate our Valleys and that accessing them can provide opportunities for learning and recreation. But none of this is possible if we carry on the way we are. Woodland policy needs to be much more ambitious. 

Since 2010, just one tenth of the target for woodland creation has been met. The next iteration of the 'Woodlands for Wales' strategy needs to set out this radical shift in thinking that stakeholders are demanding. It cannot simply be an update on current policy that just takes into account recent legislative changes but must have challenging achievable targets.

Trees make a big difference to our society. Tree-lined roads look a lot better than non-tree-lined roads. Trees on hills above housing help stop any flooding, and trees in areas of urban deprivation can actually make the area look an awful lot better. I think that if there's one thing we can do without a huge amount of difficulty, it's just have more trees in Wales, and I hope the Minister is going to say that's exactly what she's going to do.

Can I just say that it was a pleasure to be involved in this report? I think it was a really important piece of work. We saw some excellent practice, but, in general, an area of public policy that needs to improve its game. I'd like to concentrate my remarks on the forestry sector, because I think it's often overlooked, its significance, at just over £0.5 billion every year.

Trees in general—many of them in the forestry sector, rather than scattered woodlands or urban woodlands or whatever—absorb an awful lot of carbon pollution. That's again a great benefit, as well as the commercial one, and then, in terms of habitats for thousands of different species of plants and animals, especially when forestry is designed to allow occupation by a wide range of species, it can have many, many benefits. It's also good for flood management when we see afforestation upstream.

The recreation and tourism that forestry and woodlands provide is something that we've already seen grow in use, and there is more potential still. Over 10,000 jobs in Wales are in forestry, it's an essential part of the rural economy, and it also offers a feasible way for many farmers to diversify. So, I think those are some of the clear benefits and they should be taken further.

So, it is rather disappointing, as the Chair alluded to, that, since 2010, Wales has managed to plant just one tenth of its target of 35,000 hectares. This performance is well below, say, what's happened in Scotland. I think, overall in the UK, we should be planting more, but it is an area, really, when you compare us to the European average, where we are well below. So, I would urge the Government to look at its targets and see how they can be met more effectively, or, at least, we start to see the rate pick up, so that at some time in the current framework of 2010 to 2030 we really will be able to say we might hit 100,000 hectares.

Can I look at a couple of the other recommendations? I have to say, Llywydd, that I have noticed in the Assembly that the Government is increasingly accepting recommendations in principle. It can be very difficult for a committee to get down to the root—no pun intended—of what this qualification means. The Welsh Government has not entered into vigorous correspondence with the committee on what 'in principle' meant, and has just said that they'll outline some of the reasons in today's debate. I'm glad that they're doing it in a public forum, but we've been after these answers for a couple of months, so I am concerned by this, as I am by the general principle of, instead of accepting or rejecting, having this sort of middle stream of intense ambiguity.

I'm particularly worried also by the rejection outright of recommendation 4, but at least that allows us to engage and discuss and try to persuade the Government to change its mind. But, anyway, this is the recommendation of a 20 per cent urban tree canopy—again, our Chair referred to this. This is the target internationally recognised for establishing urban forests—that 20 per cent of your urban land has canopy. I really think that that's an aspiration that we should have for our urban areas, or certainly most of them, in Wales. We weren't given terribly convincing reasons, in my view, by the Government why this shouldn't happen. They said, 'Well, it would undermine local decision making'—well, crikey, if that's the test they're going to apply throughout the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, I'm afraid we're not going to see the sort of progress that most people are looking for. Again, I do hope that they will examine that. I should say, Llywydd, that urban tree canopy in Wales is falling; we're currently at 16.3 per cent, so I do think that it's time that we raised our level and adopted the 20 per cent.

I was going to talk about the Glastir dimension for woodland schemes; I think the Chair has covered that. Can I just say in conclusion, Llywydd, that, in terms of woodland policy, again I think we need to be more ambitious? Wales is a natural area for temperate rainforest. We could see more planting and encouraging this sector to grow. It's really good for local communities, often, to take ownership or have schemes. I think many of us who visited Maesteg and saw the Spirit of Llynfi Woodland were really, really inspired, and I urge the Government to follow that example and raise its sights.

I'm very pleased to contribute to this debate and to have been part of bringing together the report as well. We're sometime accused of making policy on the hoof—we actually made policy on the foot, walking the woodlands of Wales, in this regard, and I think we were all better for it. It was a very good demonstration of what forestry can do for Wales—it's good for our health, good for the environment and good for the social and economic opportunities it brings as well. It has real benefits in terms of carbon capture or carbon storage, flood alleviation, reduction of air pollution, particularly in urban areas, and real recreation and health opportunities and for economic growth.

This was brought home to me, certainly, in the inquiry, but also in a visit to James Davies Limited in Cenarth, which is a wood-processing sawmill in the Teifi valley, which I was very pleased to revisit, as it happens to be, but they've made a significant investment since I was last there, and to see that this is a really thriving part of rural development in Wales as well. So, there are real opportunities for woodland development in Wales, and, of course, as Natural Resources Wales, which is part of the Welsh Government woodland estate managed by Natural Resources Wales, is 40 per cent of all woodland in Wales, then I think Welsh Government is in a position to show very clear leadership. 

I want to share David Melding's disappointment regarding the way that committee reports are being replied to by Government increasingly in this 'accept in principle' manner. And on this occasion as a committee we said, 'Well, let's find out what "in principle" means then', and we were told, 'Well, wait and see', in effect. I think we need—. You know, it would be more honest to say, 'We don't accept this recommendation', and then to have a proper debate about those things.  

Will you give way? 

Yes, if it's a—. 

Just to help you on this point, the Public Accounts Committee has recently written to the Permanent Secretary on this very point, asking for an intellectual honesty from the Government—when they genuinely don't agree with the point, to say so and give the reasons why. And we've had a letter back this week from the Permanent Secretary saying that the Government will do that, so we need to keep an eye on that.   

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.  

Can I echo some of the comments with regard to urban conurbation that have been made by the Members here? If you stand on a hill overlooking Cwmbran and Newport, then the actual conurbation itself is often obscured by tree cover, and it would be great to see that echoed in other cities throughout Wales. 

Woodlands are a unique environmental and commercial asset, so given the environment of targets and Acts brought forward by the Welsh Government over the last decade, it is quite astounding how it has neglected this vital national resource. I'm afraid it is yet another example of the Welsh Government talking a good talk and yet failing to meet the agendas and targets it itself sets.

Since its 'Woodlands for Wales' strategy was published in 2001, which amongst other things was to encourage the planting of trees in a sustainable and expanding forestry industry, we have actually lost 14,000 hectares of woodland and have a shortfall running at 31,000 planted hectares. Under its new strategy, the Welsh Government has set a target of just 2,000 hectares of new planting for the next five years. This means it will take all of 50 years to achieve its once-stated goal of 100,000 hectares of new woodland—hardly a substantial commitment to the forestry industry.

It seems incredible that this resource, which has the potential to give such diverse benefits as economic growth, reduction of imports, carbon reduction, flood prevention, not to mention health and tourist promotion, has been so neglected by this Government for so long. Surely it is time for the Welsh Government to step up to the plate and not only implement the recommendations of the report, but commit to a truly ambitious strategy to greatly expand this industry and let Wales be a world leader in embracing this vital, natural asset. Notwithstanding the above comments, I can confirm that UKIP will be supporting this report. 

As this important piece of work from the climate change committee reminds us, 15 per cent of Wales is covered by forestry. Our woodlands are an important ecosystem; a vital, environmental tool, an opportunity for healthy leisure and recreation and a valuable, economic resource. How we manage them is crucial to the sort of Wales we want to create.

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Ann Jones) took the Chair.

I welcomed the opportunity to contribute to the early part of this inquiry and commend the committee and their clerks on a really useful report. I intend to address the bulk of my comments today to recommendation 5 on the way in which woodlands can serve us as an effective tool for regeneration and for engaging with local communities. I think this is key. It also echoes an important strand of the Valleys taskforce work, with their priority focus on the development of the Valleys landscape park. As the Welsh Government notes in its response to the committee's recommendation, this landscape park will help the communities in the south Wales Valleys to work with the public sector to maximise sustainable, local benefits from their area's natural resources. Woodland is a key strand of this, with opportunities for community development, the creation of green infrastructure jobs and locally sourced timber being used for modern housing. 

On my visit to Garwnant when I sat on the committee, I heard about the ways in which the NRW forestry there offers economic and community benefits. One of the most exciting developments I was told about were the plans to develop the first Welsh Forest Holidays facility on the site. This is a really good example of sympathetically diversifying the activity at the site, boosting its earning potential and local economic contribution. The plans involve a £5 million investment in the site that wouldn't require public subsidy, creating approximately 40 jobs and new opportunities for local businesses. Getting more community involvement in our forests could also boost health and well-being. I want to use just two stats to show why we need to do this. In my constituency of Cynon Valley, over one in four children is affected by childhood obesity. In my local health board area of Cwm Taf, one in six people have mental health challenges. Both of these statistics are above average but both could be reduced by encouraging people into the woodland found almost on their doorsteps. In particular, there are opportunities in the context of outdoor education and I'm glad that this is explicitly mentioned in the recommendation.

Members may recall my short debate from June last year on this theme. Dare Valley Country Park in my constituency is home to a nature-based parent and toddler group that has learnt from the global Skogsmulle movement. Children who've benefited from this outdoor education were found to be able to concentrate twice as well as their peers and have better motor skills and more advanced well-being. Benefits are also recognised by the elements of outdoor learning embedded in the national curriculum, but I do think we are missing a trick if we don't take steps to further integrate this. Another example I'd like to commend is the Ynysybwl Regeneration Partnership, who have secured nearly £1.3 million from the Big Lottery for a seven-year community project. Community forestry plays a large role in their vision. As part of this, £200,000 will be allocated for YRP to build facilities and a visitor centre at Daerwynno outdoor pursuits centre, and £65,000 will also be used to develop trails and routes through the local forestry.

In the time remaining to me, I just want to make a few reflections on a few of the other recommendations. Recommendation 1 is really important: it is not good that we lag so far behind other countries in terms of planting rates. I think this links to recommendation 9, with the economic benefits we could gain from boosting timber production. I'm thinking of the housing opportunities on display at Pentre Solar in Pembrokeshire for example. Recommendations 3 and 8 are also really important. Afforestation can reduce the risk of flooding, and the National Trust announced earlier this year how they were developing forest in the Lake district in response to flooding there. Such a programme could also support farmers in marginal areas, in upland areas that are difficult to farm productively. So, it's essential that we look at how support can be tailored to encourage them to do just that. Finally, on recommendation 4, I share the disappointment that the Welsh Government has rejected this recommendation, especially in light of our discussions on air pollution last week. A scientific study from EarthSense Systems looked at how pollution could be reduced on Oxford Street in London, and concluded that the planting of trees was effective at reducing pollutant levels and did so up to 100 times cheaper than other strategies.

Thank you. Mark Isherwood.

Sorry, my hearing device is trapped—I'm being strangled here.

Oh—

I'll do it without.

The first recommendation in this committee report states:

'The Welsh Government must, as a matter of urgency, refresh its woodland strategy with the aim of significantly increasing planting rates.'

And its final recommendation states:

'the Welsh Government must ensure that future funding should be based on sustainable outcomes.'

However, Confor, the Confederation of Forest Industries, state that, although forests in Wales are managed to the UK forestry standard, which defines sustainable forest management as the basis for the 'Woodlands for Wales' strategy, planting trees is often viewed negatively, Government agencies, non-Government agencies and society oppose land-use change, leading to a presumption against woodland creation and the loss of the benefits of modern mixed forestry for people and the environment.

They therefore call for an acceptance of land-use change at a significant scale, a Government willing to promote forestry, and a national campaign for Welsh forestry and timber, stating that Wales will benefit because modern forestry operates to a world-leading sustainability standard that leaves other sectors far behind and produces a natural, versatile and infinitely renewable material, creating vibrant places for recreation and biodiversity in the process. But they also state that, in addition to producing timber, forest must be designed to mitigate flooding and conserve important species and habitat.

As I stated in my 90-second statement earlier, the curlew is special. It's one of our largest waders with a beautiful, haunting call, but this bird species is in serious trouble across large parts of Britain. Between 1994 and 2016, the curlew population declined by 68 per cent in Wales. As Wales species champion for the curlew, a bird that has historically been hugely affected by inappropriately located forestry plantations in the uplands, I'm concerned to ensure that, while woodland expansion in Wales has the potential to make a significant contribution to securing resilient woodland ecosystems, it must be appropriately located. Inappropriate woodland expansion has been identified as a key threat to upland habitats and the species found there. This includes curlew, which require large areas of open habitat on which to nest. Locating new woodlands on or adjacent to sensitive upland areas causes loss of habitat and changes in vegetation, thus reducing the amount of suitable breeding sites available for these ground-nesting birds.

As the RSPB states, appropriately located and well-designed woodland expansion has the potential to make a significant contribution to restoring and enhancing woodland biodiversity in Wales. Focusing woodland expansion on buffering and connecting existing woodland will improve the resilience of woodland ecosystems, and new woodland must be designed to deliver the full package of species requirements—places to breed, food sources for young and adults during breeding and winter food for adults. If we're to deliver genuine biodiversity benefits as well as increasing the area of certified woodland, we need appropriate monitoring to ensure that certified woodland is delivering for priority species and habitats. Failure to monitor the impacts risks woodland creation negatively impacting on both habitats and species.

To ensure woodland expansion in Wales delivers the full possible range of benefits whilst limiting the potential negative effects, the data used to inform woodland expansion must be fit for purpose. If we're to ensure that woodland expansion avoids negative impacts on species of open habitats, the underlying data must be updated and regularly reviewed, and must cover the full range of species impacted. Forest design plans must be based around delivery of desired objectives, and wherever possible, designed to deliver the maximum benefit. Timber production plans should aim to deliver a range of benefits including biodiversity, water flow and quality improvements, and recreation opportunities alongside sustainable timber production.

In recent years, woodland expansion in Wales has been restricted to the creation of numerous small woodlands, many located on farms, through both Glastir woodland creation and the Glastir small grants scheme. Many of these woodlands have involved the planting of the last remaining areas of semi-natural habitat within the landscape, and the loss of these last refuges is likely to have a significant impact on farm wildlife. Ensuring the impacts of woodland expansion are fully understood will be vital to avoiding future problems, and this can only be achieved through appropriate monitoring. Learning the lessons of poor historical forestry practice is vital. If we are to secure our natural resources for future generations, ensuring woodland expansion avoids negatively impacting on the species and habitats that underpin our natural resources will be critical.

The simple act of planting trees can have many spin-off benefits, from tourism to a nascent woodland economy, from flood management to thriving wildlife, from improved health and well-being to house building and jobs. Many of us do not realise the positive impact that forests and woodlands in Wales can have on our lives. As a member of the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, I would like to stress the social benefits of woodland—the second main theme explored in the 'Branching out' report.

As our Chair, Mike Hedges said, on our visit to the fantastic Spirit of Llynfi woodland in Maesteg we all saw for ourselves just how beneficial woodlands can be to the local community. Natural Resources Wales is working with the communities in the upper Llynfi valley to restore the former Coegnant colliery and Maesteg washery sites into community woodland. Local residents, community groups and schools have all been involved, from tree planting, community orchards, cycling tracks and designing dog trails. On our visit to Maesteg, one of the contributors suggested that we needed to make woodlands cool. Engaging with young people and encouraging them to visit a woodland with family or through school can ignite a lifelong love of the outdoors. As well as incorporating woodland education into our schools, as the report suggests, it would be good to explore ways that the Welsh baccalaureate could work with community woodland groups in the future.

We all know that we don't take enough advantage of the things on our doorstep, but having access to green spaces and woodland, particularly in urban areas, is so beneficial to the health and well-being of people, and I agree with other Members on the importance of increasing our canopy cover, particularly in those urban areas. The potential benefits to our communities are significant. On discussing the issue with representatives of the Woodland Trust on my visit to Wentwood forest, they told me of their Wandering in the Woods project. This project took place in Essex, East Sussex and Wiltshire and looked to reconnect people living with dementia in care homes with nature and, in particular, with woodlands. The project showed that there were potentially very significant physical, emotional and social benefits to people living with dementia and their carers from visiting woodlands, and I'd urge the Cabinet Secretary to look at that project.

In my own constituency of Newport West, the Bassaleg Community Woodland Trust are working hard to safeguard their local natural woodland environment. The dedicated group of volunteers aim to create a woodland park that is accessible, well managed and attractive for all to enjoy. Sharing information and good practice around Wales is crucial. Llais y Goedwig supports all community groups across Wales. Bringing these groups together and sharing practical advice is an important way to help volunteers come together to look after and manage community woodlands.

I welcome the Welsh Government's intention to increase funding for small community woodland groups across the country. Community woodlands are valuable spaces that enable visitors to make the most of the outdoors and contribute to the health and well-being of local residents. We must strive to support local community woodland groups, making it easier for people to manage and preserve woodlands for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations.

Thank you. Can I call on the Minister for Environment, Hannah Blythyn?

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—

Will the Minister give way? Just on the point about decarbonisation, I think we also need to bear in mind that we import a significant amount of timber. I think 80 per cent of the timber we use is actually imported, and there's a huge way in which we can meet our objectives under the future generations Act by growing more of our own timber here and using that—I welcome what you said about housing, for example—in that way. We would have a double decarbonisation going on then, because we would be reducing travel for imports and we would also, of course, using a carbon-friendly way of creating our own timber.

Yes, absolutely. The Member makes a very good point there.

We want to build on initiatives like the woodland carbon code, where those who create new woodland are paid for carbon sequestration, and in addition I'm encouraged to see the early development of the peatland code, which supports these valuable ecosystems.

In concluding, I believe that these could be exciting times for forestry in Wales. Amid the many serious challenges of Brexit, this industry has the potential to turn challenges into opportunities, and I think that today's debate shows that there is a strong consensus for action on this. I note what Members have been saying across the floor in terms of the 'accept in principle' response, but I'd like to place on record today that there is no ambiguity in my commitment to taking this issue forward. It will be one of my top priorities as Minister for the environment.

I am genuinely grateful for the committee's 'tree-mendous' work on this report. [Interruption.] It is Christmas, come on. [Laughter.] I couldn't resist. [Interruption.] I think I should move on quickly.

The Welsh Government has accepted all but one of the committee's recommendations, and now we're fully engaged in ensuring that our aspirations grow into action, taking root to deliver the right results. Diolch yn fawr.

Thank you. Can I call on Mike Hedges to reply to the debate?

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. First of all, can I thank David Melding, Simon Thomas, David Rowlands, Vikki Howells, Jayne Bryant, Mark Isherwood and the Minister for taking part in this debate, and I think, most importantly, for the positive and consensual way we've all taken it forward? I think I could sit down now and say, 'Well, we're all in agreement, aren't we?' But there are a number of things that I think need saying. I think the first one is: I have no problem with local targets, but is somebody going to count up all  the local targets and publish what those local targets are? Are we then going to find out how people are doing against those local targets? I've no problem with local targets, but if adding up all the local targets comes to 2,000 trees, we've got something wrong. And I think that if it comes to more than we were expecting, then we're moving very much in the right direction, but we also need to make sure that people are meeting those targets. Targets are wonderful things, but if you have lots of local targets around, then somebody needs to co-ordinate it, and I would hope the Minister would report back to our committee on an annual basis—the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee on an annual basis—on how they're doing against those targets.

Moving on. Most people have said very similar things, which is hardly surprising. The committee was in total agreement. There are things like the economic benefits of it, the environmental benefits of it, the wider range of species, and the number of jobs created. I think Vikki Howells highlighted very important work that was done in her area that didn't actually need any Government money either, which is abnormal—every time somebody has got a project they want to know how much they're going to get in either sponsorship or in Government money to do it. I think there are means of doing this that can be economically viable and people can make money out of it.

People talked about a whole range of very good projects. I think one of the things that saddens most of us is that these are sort of isolated projects around Wales. There's the Llynfi project, which I know Huw Irranca-Davies is very proud of, what's going on in Bassaleg, and what's going on in the Cynon valley, but what we should be talking about is what's going on in every town, every city and every valley. It's not just, 'We'll find some good practices.' When people used to visit North Korea, they were taken to see this one area, which was their area to show visitors. We don't want that, do we? We only want to see whether it's working everywhere, so that you can take your pick in terms of where in Wales you go and you will see forestry growing.

It's hugely economic. Natural Resources Wales complain about not having money—or they complain to the committee about not having money. Well, they have major forestry; they should be making money on their timber. Commercial developers are making substantial sums on their timber. We should be looking for them as well to be showing a lead on this.

Mark Isherwood talks about increasing planting rates and sustainable outcomes, but I think on the lack of general support for forestry, what he says there, is absolutely right. We don't talk about forestry here very often. Compare the amount of times we've talked about forestry in here with the amount of times we've talked about agriculture. I think that forestry is losing very dramatically against that.

We want sustainable outcomes, but I think that, really, there are huge benefits to trees. I mean, they benefit the environment. We talk about the problems we've got with air quality. Well, plant some trees. We talk about the problems we've got with flooding. Plant some trees. We talk about the problems we have with urban areas looking unpleasant. Plant some trees. We talk about dereliction in some of our older communities. I know that people use the words 'Valleys communities', well, can I welcome them to areas like Swansea East, for example, which may not be considered a Valleys community, but it has areas of economic deprivation and has one of the largest tree planting schemes in Europe taking place in it, to reclaim the lower Swansea valley? Kilvey Hill was covered in trees. This can be done. It's been done before.

It really is important that we work on ensuring that we increase the amount of coverage that we have of trees, that we work on ensuring that forestry is seen as an important part of the Welsh economy, that it is seen as an important area. If anywhere else was generating 10,000 jobs, we'd be talking about it as a major employer and how important it was. There are 10,000 jobs in forestry, but because they're not all in one factory—. If somebody created a factory with 10,000 jobs, we'd have a list of people in here rushing down—Ministers, opposition spokespeople—to go to visit it and say, 'Isn't it wonderful that this place is creating 10,000 jobs?' But because they're distributed all around Wales, then we're perhaps less inclined to consider it. But many of them are in areas that have high unemployment and often the employment they have is very low-paid. So, forestry makes a big difference to those areas. 

I just really want to say that I think we're all on the same side. I think the Minister has responded very positively and I'll just end by repeating what I said earlier: can we have a report to the committee, or to the Chamber here, on an annual basis on how we're doing against those local targets? Because I think that really is something that very many of us want to see. Local targets are fine, but can we have them added up and given to us? Thank you.

Thank you very much. The proposal is to note the committee's report. Does any Member object? No. Therefore, the motion is agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

Motion agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.