Responding to the latest figures on the amount of new woodland created last year (2023/24) that showed only 12% of the Welsh Government’s target was hit, Janet Finch-Saunders MS, Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Climate Change said:
“The Labour Welsh Government only have themselves to blame for these appalling figures, we need a timber industrial strategy and fast.
“We need a radical review of the Welsh Government's failing approach. Suitable publicly owned land should be plated first, and landowners who want to grow trees, supported to do so. There is no way that they should be forced.
“Questions should also be raised about the target. A square meter of seagrass captures triple the amount of the equivalent from a rainforest and ten times the amount from grasslands. As I have said in the Senedd on several occasions, there is an overemphasis on trees when we should be focussing on capturing carbon out at sea.”
