Tree-planting: Why are large investment firms buying Welsh farms? (2024)

FAQs

What is the Welsh government target for tree planting? ›

1.1 The Welsh Government (WG) has committed to support the planting of 180,000 hectares of trees by 2050 as part of their Net Zero strategy1. The future carbon profile of Wales and reaching Wales's Net Zero targets2 depend on the delivery of increased woodland3.

Across Europe, farmers are protesting against changes to regulations and subsidy schemes. Smaller protests have spread through the UK – particularly in Wales, where thousands have turned out to air their grievances with the recent update to the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS).

The scheme provides funding for the planting of trees and the installation of fencing and gates. It also offers 12 years of maintenance and premium payments (compensation for loss of agricultural income). Planting trees under the scheme will not affect Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments or land eligibility.

While the seedlings are growing they continue to support life by absorbing carbon dioxide and other gases and emit fresh oxygen. Farms that grow Christmas trees stabilize soil, protect water supplies and provide refuge for wildlife while creating scenic green belts.

The Welsh Government has set two ambitious targets by 2050, namely to reach a million Welsh speakers, and to double the percentage of the population who use Welsh daily. The Government's Cymraeg 2050 strategy emphasises the central importance of the education sector in achieving this goal.

The scheme, run by the Welsh Government and Coed Cadw, the Woodland Trust in Wales will help tackle the effects of climate change and will also contribute to the National Forest for Wales. Between now and March 2023 there are 295,000 trees available to households that fill in a Plant a Tree for Me online form.

We want to keep Welsh farmers farming, as we tackle the climate and nature emergency. The sector is facing significant challenges as a result of persistently high inflation and energy costs, global instability, high input costs and volatile farmgate prices together with substantial change in the industry.

What are the farmers protesting about? The main trigger for the protests are proposals in the Welsh government's sustainable farming scheme (SFS) – its post-Brexit plan for funding the industry from 2025. One of the ideas is that farmers should commit to ensuring 10% of their land is under tree cover.

Sustainable Farming Scheme

This is the Welsh government's big plan for funding the industry after Brexit - which puts a lot more emphasis on the environment. In order to gain access to the scheme, farmers will have to commit to having trees on 10% of their land, and earmark another 10% as wildlife habitat.

Woodland values are far less volatile than many more traditional financial market investments and complement any portfolio. The long term nature of a woodland investment provides a high degree of stability and growth patterns are historically very reliable.

Why would you buy woodland UK? ›

Financial benefits of owning woodland

Enterprises sometimes involve ancient and highly sustainable activities such as coppicing and charcoal burning. Commercial woodland is also often used for leisure pursuits such as paintballing, bushcraft and similar courses.

Forestry as an investment

As with most assets, there are two main ways to make money from trees: capital gains and income. So you can buy a plot of woodland and hope that it goes up in value by the time you come to sell it. Or you can buy a forest and sell the timber that it produces.

Many plantations, being made of single species and well trimmed, often do not hold a variety of wildlife. They are generally more susceptible to disease and insect attack, and often to fires as well. And many plantations are NOT sustainable years without extensive chemical support.

The trees provide shade and shelter to the crops, and their deeper root systems help the soil retain moisture.

“But while biodiverse forests support the livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples and other forest dependent people around the world, tree plantations generally produce low-quality timber for making disposable paper products, while taking away local people's land, destroying biodiversity, depleting water resources, and ...

The purpose and role of the Welsh Government Woodland Estate

The woodland estate helps to tackle climate change by locking up carbon. It also provides valuable habitats for plants and wildlife and offers space for recreation. It provides a good supply of timber, which supports employment and rural livelihoods.

Rates of woodland creation need to accelerate to capture carbon and to help biodiversity. To meet legally binding environmental targets, we need to increase tree cover from 14.5% to 16.5% by 2050.

This final plan sets the strategic vision, outcomes and areas for action to improve conditions for pollinators and work to halt and reverse their decline in Wales. An implementation plan will be developed and delivered by a Pollinators delivery group, within the Wales Biodiversity Framework.

This would require UK tree planting rates to rise to between 30–50,000 hectares per year ⁹ and stay at this level until 2050 to reach the predicted necessary contribution to net zero. The Government has committed to a UK-wide target of creating 30,000 hectares a year of new woodland by 2025.