3. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's forestry policy? OAQ54680

We need to rapidly increase the scale and pace of tree planting in Wales to help tackle biodiversity decline and the climate change emergency. The First Minister’s vision for a national forest programme will accelerate tree planting, delivering a wide range of economic, environmental and social benefits for the people of Wales.

I welcome that statement from the Minister. I particularly welcome the First Minister's commitment to a national forest. I think those are very important statements. I also welcome what is written in the latest iteration of 'Woodlands for Wales', which I think was published last year. In that document, I believe the Government sets out advice on climate change policy that it requires to move from planting a few 100 hectares at the moment, to 2,000 and then to 4,000 hectares of woodland in order to meet our climate ambitions. Could the Minister tell me whether it is the policy of Welsh Government that we will reach the European average for woodland cover, which I think is something like 38 per cent? Is that the policy of the Government? If that is not the policy of the Government, what is the objective of the Government in terms of woodland cover across Wales, and does the Government have a timescale by which it can deliver that objective?

I would be the first person to say that we aren't planting sufficient numbers of trees, but we have seen steady but small progress over the last three years in particular. Just over the last three years, we've planted 16,387,612 trees. I'm not quite sure what percentage of land that covers, but that's the number that we have planted. Certainly, the progress that we are making to take forward the First Minister's vision for a national forest programme will help. Obviously, it's a long-term project, so I haven't got a target, as such. There was a target within the woodland strategy, which we haven't been fulfilling, so I would rather really push ahead with significant work, and I hope to bring forward some significant announcements around tree planting before the end of the year, but, clearly, if we are going to meet our climate change targets, we do need to rapidly increase the forest cover that we have in Wales, because that is an absolutely key way of being able to mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration.

Two weeks ago, the Confederation of Forest Industries—Confor—stated that, at present, only a third of the budget is available to meet the Welsh Government's minimum target of creating 2,000 hectares of new woodland each year and to meet its climate energy aspirations. I understand that the Welsh forestry sector generates £528 million gross value added for Wales, supporting 10,000 jobs, and, of course, plays a major role in carbon dioxide sequestration, or carbon capture and storage.

During the summer, I visited a BSW Timber group at Maelor Forest Nurseries Holdings in Bronington, Wrexham, just outside your constituency, who told me about the world-leading role they're playing in forestry genetics research and development—the only nursery in the UK carrying out this key work, developing species to make them more sustainable as the climate changes. They told me that they're investing heavily in this research and development and planning further long-term investments, that the Scottish Government is opening the door to them and trying to encourage them to go there, but they're looking to the Welsh Government to encourage them and incentivise them to stay in Wales and develop the lab they have there. So, what support will you give to ensure that this world-beating research stays in Wales and doesn't emigrate to Scotland?

I'm not aware that I have been asked for support, but there could be something in the pipeline that I haven't seen. But I'd certainly be very interested to visit there and have a look at their R&D. I think any R&D, particularly world-leading R&D, that's done in Wales, we would be very keen to keep here, in principle. So, I'd be very happy, if the Member would like to write to me around it, or ask them to write to me, and I'll certainly visit and take that forward.

Minister, in 2017 the decline in softwood planting in Wales was time-predicted to lead to a 50 per cent reduction in the availability of softwood by 2045. The shortfall in production in conifer woodland in Wales since the turn of the century is of considerable concern and has affected the supply of timber. What measures are being taken to increase the planting of trees by NRW and to also replenish stocks felled in response to the deadly disease of larch?

Thank you. I met just yesterday with the chair and officers of Natural Resources Wales, where tree planting—well, it's always a standing agenda item. And, certainly, we've given funding to NRW for them to be able to increase the tree planting. We have seen some specific tree planting around some diseases—you'll be aware of P. ramorum, for instance, which has forced clearances of large areas of larch, as you said, especially in the south Wales Valleys. So, NRW, when they do replant trees and replace them, they take the opportunity to make sure that the trees and the woodlands that are replanted are restructured with multispecies to help them become much more resilient to that disease.