How to see the wood for the trees from an economic perspective

"THERE'S more to Britain's trees than meets the eye. That's what David Crichton thought when he became chief executive of the Confederation of Forest Industries (ConFor) almost two years ago and today he has the backing of an independent report to prove it.

The report indicates that Britain's forest industry generates £7.2 billion a year directly and employs 167,000 people.

The Scottish figures within that are £960 million and 19,100 jobs.

But, he said, when we discussed the report, that the added-value and multiplier effect mean that, directly and indirectly, British forestry is worth more than £19bn to the economy and employs about 700,000 people.

Printing and publishing, construction and furniture are the three main users of timber. But telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and food processing are also unexpected large-scale users.

"We aren't making heroic assumptions," Crichton said. "This is an independent and robust report by the centre for economic and business research that shows forestry provides more jobs and has even more indirect impact than I thought."

More importantly, he believes the report, commissioned jointly by ConFor and the state-owned Forestry Commission, identifies "significant opportunities for growth" while combating climate change and reducing carbon dioxide emissions and the potential to provide another 59,000 jobs.

The information in the report will be used with government and the public to say "this is what we do", he said, with the clear implication that they - ConFor aims to represent all parts of the private forestry industry - would like to do more.

"The report shows that forestry is a viable commercial business," he added.

" That's important. Forestry to meet environmental and social demands is fine, but I've always said that you can't achieve those unless there is a sound commercial base."

"Significant opportunities" for growth are identified, including the battle against climate change and as a source of renewable energy while providing a source of heat and energy.

"Biomass could have a powerful effect on job creation across the UK, especially in large areas of unmanaged woodland in England," he said.

Scottish Enterprise has suggested that 5 per cent of domestic and commercial heat production from renewables could be met by the use of wood biomass by 2020.

Some of that could be short-rotation coppice, but Crichton believes there is great potential in trimmings as trees are harvested and a total of one million tonnes annually is possible.

"We shouldn't ignore biomass on the doorstep, preferably with a short haul to where it will be used."

That is because mainstream timber production has an environmental downside when it is harvested, namely usually a long haul on country roads to where it can be processed.

Small-scale heat, or combined heat and power (CHP), systems like those already installed in some schools are preferable.

In England, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is going ahead with a number of schemes, including central boilers in low-cost housing developments.

He hopes that the Scottish Executive, with its commitments to renewable energy sources, will look at similar schemes; £5 to £10m a year would "have a big effect".

He added: "Sustainable energy produced from biomass must be given a central role in the mix of renewable energy power sources that will reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

"The double incentive to develop an effective UK biomass industry is an improved global environment and the potential to create 59,000 new jobs."

There is also great potential for more home-grown timber use in Britain's construction industry, he said, even if the long-standing 70 per cent imports, 30 per cent home grown, split is unlikely to change dramatically.

"Britain has about 11.6 per cent tree cover - within that, Scotland is about 17.1 per cent - but the European average is 36.3 per cent."

Even reaching the Scottish Executive's 25 per cent forestry cover target, set in its recent "Forestry Strategy" document, will not change things greatly.

"But the message is that timber is a sustainable, renewable product that lends itself to construction, it can be worked off-site then installed and that quality has improved."

He said: "This report demonstrates that Britain's forest products industry is a national asset. It's modern, dynamic and making a significant contribution to the economy."

Forestry Commission Scotland has been given the go-ahead by the Scottish forestry minister, Rhona Brankin, to do more with environmental forestry.

That follows the report by a review group chaired by Simon Pepper, the former director of WWF Scotland.

This praises the Commission for its environmental work in recent years - with special reference to Glen Affric, Glengarry and Sunart oakwoods - but makes recommendations for future work relating to ancient and native woodlands, management of large-scale landscapes, climate change mitigation, forest planning and a long-term vision for national forest land."