30 million trees planted in Scotland in 2023

During 2023/24 roughly 30 million trees covering 15,000 hectares were created in Scotland, which is more than an 80 per cent jump from the year before.

Of the over 300 reforestation projects in the country, around half were taken forward by farmers, crofters or other small scale landowners.

The statistics also reveal the highest level of new native woodland since 2001, with 7,700 hectares being created. This is more than twice the previous year and makes up half of the total area of new woodland in Scotland.

Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said: “This is quite a remarkable achievement and very positive news. There has been a tremendous amount of hard work to bring us these welcome figures.

“We need to give credit to all those who helped get the trees in the ground - this includes Scottish Forestry’s staff, woodland owners large and small, farmers, crofters, Forestry and Land Scotland, nurseries, forestry companies and their agents, and all those who actually did the planting.

“The figures are a perfect example of what can be achieved by working in partnership for the benefit of Scotland. I’d like to congratulate everyone involved.”

Last year Scotland created 73 per cent of all new woodlands in the UK and met 90 per cent of its ambitious woodland creation target of 16,500 hectares for 2023/24.

Last June, when a dip in woodland creation levels were recorded, Scottish Forestry introduced a package of new measures to help raise woodland planting.

This resulted in the biggest change to the Forestry Grant Scheme since it began back in 2015, and included grant rate increases, new or improved grant options and the speeding up of processing applications for new woodlands.

Around 83,000 hectares (166 million trees) of new woodland have been created in Scotland since the Forestry Grant Scheme was established back in 2015, with 34,600 hectares being native woodland.