Forestry

The Highlands are rich in timber resources and currently have 40 per cent of the woodland area of Scotland providing nearly 4,000 jobs. With greater emphasis in recent years on diversity of new planting coupled with increased production from existing forests, the industry’s challenge is to balance commercial needs with those of the community and wider environment.

Against a background of stiff competition from imported finished products and record low round wood prices, the industry faces a challenge to invest and upskill to cope with the forecast increase in both production of logs and demand for products. Critical to future success is greater collaboration between existing players, along with strategic investments in new facilities and new processing technologies.

HIE works with this business sector in order to:

• Maximise the value to the Highlands and Islands’ economy of the wood resource becoming available for harvesting over the next 20 years
• Support and develop niche value-added products from local resources
• Create a high quality, diverse forest resource taking appropriate account of opportunities for local ownership and management

These priorities are in line with the Scottish Executive’s Scottish Forestry Strategy.

Bob Stubbs bc.stubbs@hient.co.uk can advise further.