'˜Tree cover target has no chance of success'

A government target to achieve 12 per cent woodland cover across England by 2060 has no chance of success, a chartered surveyor has claimed.
The forestry Countryside Stewardship Scheme has been branded "not fit for purpose".The forestry Countryside Stewardship Scheme has been branded "not fit for purpose".
The forestry Countryside Stewardship Scheme has been branded "not fit for purpose".

Current levels of government support and management bureaucracy will prevent the goal being reached, according to Mike Tustin.

His comments follow the publication of a parliamentary watchdog committee report which states that the forestry Countryside Stewardship Scheme is “not fit for purpose”. Organisations involved in administering the European scheme said it was torturous, bureaucratic and overly complex.

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Mr Tustin, of John Clegg & Co, said: “The committee is right to raise questions about whether the ambition to achieve 12 per cent woodland cover by 2060 is achievable. We’re supportive of the target, but in reality there’s no chance of success at current levels of support or with current levels of management bureaucracy.”

He said the firm had long viewed the Countryside Stewardship Scheme as overly-bureaucratic and that its authors did not understand forestry and technical issues around planting. For example, the scheme only allows 25 per cent of an area to be planted with conifers, despite a shortfall in the availability softwood forecast from around 2030.

The scheme, which delivers payments under EU agricultural policy to landowners to plant trees, is acting as a barrier to creating more woodlands which are beneficial to health, environment and the economy, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Committee said in its report.

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