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Welsh Parliament |
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Pwyllgor yr Economi, Masnach a Materion Gwledig |
Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee |
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Bil Amaethyddiaeth (Cymru) |
Agriculture (Wales) Bill |
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AGR-49 |
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Ymateb gan: Continuous Cover Forestry Group |
Evidence from: Continuous Cover Forestry Group |
This response is submitted on behalf of the Wales committee of the GB wide Continuous Cover Forestry Group. I would be grateful for an acknowledgement.
CCFG’s primary role is to promote the transformation of even-aged plantations to structurally, visually and biologically diverse woodlands. We also aim to enhance the production of high quality timber according to the principles of continuous cover management. We are a technical and professional organisation dedicated to developing skills and disseminating knowledge. In addition, we contribute to policy formulation and wider debates about sustainable forestry in Britain.
CCFG is a member of Pro Silva, a federation of forestry organisations around the world, committed to advancing close to nature silvicultural systems.
The UK Forestry Standard and the Woodlands for Wales Strategy of 2021 both encourage greater adoption of lower impact silvicultural systems. We believe that these systems have considerable potential benefits in terms of ecosystem services, resilience, carbon sequestration, and the values underlying the changes proposed in this consultation.
1. We support the proposed changes to the Forestry Act 1967 section 10 subsection (2), which will allow more account to be taken of natural beauty and flora fauna and habitats. We hope that this can be used to assist in questioning clearfelling applications, and encouraging greater use of Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) or Low Impact Silvicultural Systems (LISS) - since we believe that these systems are beneficial in providing such value and ecosystem services.
2. We support the proposed
changes to subsection (3) to allow flexibility in licence
conditions by agreement.
We hope that this will allow much greater flexibility in use of
natural regeneration in CCF or LISS, these natural processes result
in extent and location of regeneration which may not be predictable
at the time of granting of the licence. We hope that this
flexibility will also allow for different rates of establishment of
natural regeneration compared to planting.
Alec Dauncey PhD
MICFor
Wales Coordinator Continuous Cover Forestry Group