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Forest at the foot of ben nevis, a windfarm, logs being loaded onto a lorry, planting a broadleaf tree by Loch Katrine.

Forest Enterprise Scotland Strategic Plan for the National Forest Estate and Forest District Strategic Plans

The documents on this page set out Forest Enterprise Scotland’s (FES) strategy for managing the national forest estate.

The suite of strategic plans defines how Forestry Commission Scotland, through its operating arm, Forest Enterprise Scotland, will implement the Scottish Forestry Strategy on the national forest estate. 

The national forest estate is the largest single public land resource held by the Scottish Government, comprising over 660k hectares and over 35% of Scotland’s woodlands. It is a valuable resource which shows how government forestry benefits society and the wider forestry industry, while improving and developing responses to challenges such as climate change.

Cover of the National Forest Estate strategic plan 2009 - 2013The strategic plan for the national forest estate

The strategic plan will direct implementation of the Scottish Forestry Strategy (2006) on the national forest estate over five years, from 2009 to 2013.  It provides context and directions for ten local district strategic plans.

Download: National Forest Estate Strategic Plan 2009-2013 (PDF 6.3 Mb)

Forest District Strategic Plans

The forest district strategic plans define how the strategic plan will be implemented at a local level and account for local priorities and context. They will also provide direction for implementing a repositioning policy that will ensure that the nature and distribution of the national forest estate better reflects its role and purpose.

The full set of finalised forest district strategic plans will be available during January 2010.

Strategic Environmental Assessment

Each of the plans was subject to a strategic environmental assessment to ensure that significant environmental effects arising from the plans are identified and assessed and that opportunities for public involvement are provided. 

Post adoption statements

A public consultation on the draft plans was held from April to June 2008.  A post adoption statement is an independent assessment of how the Forestry Commission has dealt with feedback from that consultation on significant environmental issues; the post adoption statement for each plan is listed below.

Post adoption statements for the forest district strategic plans will be available here as the district strategic plans are published during January 2010.

Equality Impact Assessment

The strategic plans have each been subject to an equality impact assessment (EqIA) to ensure that full consideration is given to all sectors of society and how the plans may benefit or impact upon them. The EqIA's for each plan can be viewed on the Equality Impact Assessments page 

Consultation: Summary, Analysis and FES Response

Following a public consultation on the Strategic Plan for the National Forest Estate and on the forest district strategic plans, an independent consultant was asked to compile a summary and analysis of responses received. 

Forest Enterprise Scotland considered this analysis and compiled its response to demonstrate how the final version of the Strategic Plan for the National Forest Estate would be amended to account for the consultation responses.

About the PDF documents

The PDF documents on this page have been designed for Acrobat Reader version 8.  If you use an older version of the Reader, you'll still be able to read the document but might not be able to use some of its interactive features.  If you need to, you can download the latest version of Acrobat Reader from the Adobe website.