Wales needs to plant 180,000 hectares of woodland by 2050 to meet climate targets, minister says
Hitting goals ‘requires call to arms’
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Your support makes all the difference.Wales needs to plant 180,000 hectares of woodland by 2050 to meet climate targets, a Welsh government minister has said.
Lee Waters, a Labour member of the Senedd and deputy minister for climate change, said a "step change increase" in woodland planting is needed to tackle the climate emergency.
He said 5,000 hectares per year must be created if Wales is to meet goals set out in the UK Climate Change Commission's "balanced pathway".
Some 290 hectares were planted last year, he added.
Mr Waters said meeting those targets "requires a call to arms" as he urged the private sector to provide funding called on farmers and the public to get involved.
In a statement to the Senedd, Mr Waters said: Planting more trees is not only essential to help avoid catastrophic climate change but will provide a wide range of other benefits to Wales, including creating ‘green’ jobs, helping to address the nature emergency, increasing well-being, and mitigating flooding and air quality issues.
"Many of the trees planted will contribute to the new National Forest for Wales."
He added: "Delivering this will require an alliance for change involving many partners.
"The vast majority of new woodland will not be planted by the Welsh government, but by the communities, farmers and other landowners across Wales.
"Our approach will involve both harnessing the enthusiasm of communities and finding solutions which work for landowners, while avoiding land most productive for farmers."
Meeting net zero, Mr Waters said, will also mean using much more timber in Wales.
Some 80 per cent of the timber used in the UK is imported and only 4per cent of the 1.5 million m3 of harvested Welsh timber is processed to be used as construction graded timber.
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