Call for Dumfries and Galloway communities to have greater say in tree planting

Scotland’s Just Transition Commission made the plea as it unveiled its new report in Dumfries.

A call has been made for communities to have a greater say in tree planting.

Scotland’s Just Transition Commission made the plea as it unveiled its new report at South of Scotland Enterprise in Dumfries on Tuesday, which came on the back of a fact finding visit to the region.

The Climate Change Committee says the UK needs to double its tree planting rate by the end of the decade – and nearly 40 per cent of trees needed by 2050 will be in Scotland.

A large proportion of this is likely to be in Dumfries and Galloway and the Just Transition Commission says it should be easier for communities to hold stakes in forestry developments and ensure accurate public reporting of their environmental impact, biodiversity, the quality of public access, and the creation of sustainable local jobs maintaining the forests.

Commission co-chair, Professor Dave Reay , said: “We are going to have a lot more trees in Scotland and this will be one of the most visible changes as we become climate neutral. This should be a big positive, especially for rural areas at risk of depopulation such as those we visited in Dumfries and Galloway, but we’ll need to make sure communities lead these changes, not have them imposed on their local area.”

The new report also claims organisations representing community interests, such as community development trusts, are underfunded and under-resourced.

It states: “Action is required to enhance the capacity and resource of communities to play an active role in shaping changes associated with the climate transition for their locality, such as energy projects and tree planting. There is a consistent asymmetry in capacity between developers and communities which requires to be addressed strategically.”

During the commission’s visit to Dumfries and Galloway, they also looked at the region’s housing crisis and feared the “lack of adequate housing” will “slow progress in reducing emissions and risks stymying the positive potential impact of the economic opportunities brought by the transition in terms of investment, skills and labour required to reconfigure our land use and install and maintain new infrastructure”.

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Commission co-chair, Satwat Rehman, said: “Our visit to Dumfries and Galloway confirmed what we’ve heard right across the country. A just transition means tackling Scotland’s housing crisis.

“The people building our new economy need warm, comfortable homes to live in, whether they’re putting up wind turbines, laying transmission cables, retrofitting buildings, growing food or planting trees.”