Tree planting plays a vital role in restoring nature, improving air and water quality, reducing flood risk, and tackling climate change – and Wales has yet to fully realise the potential of its timber as a sustainable resource.
To grow Wales’s tree cover and help build a thriving timber industry, we will:
- Promote tree and hedge planting, and support farmers to integrate trees into their businesses through agroforestry, small-scale commercial forestry and biochar.
- Prioritise native woodland creation, restoration, and mixed woodlands – protecting high-quality agricultural land and avoiding large-scale corporate plantations created solely for carbon offsetting.
- Extend tree and hedgerow cover targets to land owned or managed by public bodies.
- Boost urban tree cover, giving priority to applications and funding for communities with the lowest existing coverage.
- Use public procurement to develop the supply chain for Welsh timber, promote innovation and business growth in the sector via the new National Development Agency, and work with the sector to deliver on the Welsh Timber Industrial Strategy.