6. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs: The Future of Land Management

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:37 pm on 8 May 2018.

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Photo of David Melding David Melding Conservative 5:37, 8 May 2018

Cabinet Secretary, can I say—[Inaudible.]—I do not believe that there needs to be a tension between productive agriculture and care for the environment. So, we can certainly combine these very important public goods and aspirations. There clearly are some areas where we could have a broader range of produce, and horticulture I think is a very interesting one.

There are some areas where we would want more radical diversification, but perhaps going back to our roots, and one area I would suggest is woodland and forestry, which would, I think, provide an alternative income stream for many farmers in combination with their food production. Now, you will know—I'm sorry to rehearse these figures again—but since 2010, Wales has managed to plant just 3,500 hectares of woodland, and it should be planting something like 5,000 a year to meet our target of 100,000 hectares by 2030—that's of new woodland and forestry. 

So, we are where we are, and we need to revisit this, I think, quite radically. But I think, post Brexit, it does offer a really good example of a win-win, and the economic return on forestry and woodland is really quite considerable once you're over that initial 12 to 15-year period when the trees are maturing. So, I think that's an area we should certainly look at, and I would commend the committee report, 'Branching out', which I think is a very good source of information on this, and it does ask us to be a bit more ambitious in our woodland and forestry policy, and I hope to see that come to fruition.