The Hotsw Forestry Enterprise Action Plan

The HoTSW Forestry Enterprise Action Plan

A Business Case for the Growth and Development

Of the Forestry and Woodland Sector

- Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership Area

Prepared by

The Silvanus Trust and Laura Jones Associates

(Contact: ; 07974 715379)

On behalf of:

HoTSW Forestry Task and Finish Group

Forestry Commission, Devon County Council, Confor, Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding National Beauty (AONB),North Devon Biosphere Reserve, FWAGSouth West, The Silvanus Trust and Exmoor National Park.

HoTSW Local Nature Partnership

The above members, plus:Blackdown Hills AONB, Climate Positive, Crops4energy, Devon Hedge Group, Devon Wildlife Trust, East Devon AONB, Natural England, RegenSW, South Hams District Council, South West Energy Centre, Torbay Council, Trees and Land CIC.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to RegenSW for off gas-grid and un-managed woodland maps and Forestry Commission, Timber Strategies, Martin Glynn Consultants, Devon County Council and South West Energy Centre for further data and discussion.

Contents

1.Introduction

2.Our aspirations for the HoTSW LEP area

3.The sector – Opportunities for growth

3.1How woodlands contribute to the HoTSW LEP area

3.2The woodland resource

Figure 1: Comparison of hardwood production between harvesting scenarios over 50-year forecast

3.3The hedgerow resource

3.4Supply chain

Table 1: Wood chain businesses relevant to HoTSW area

3.5Processing – the ‘Timber’ economy

3.6Key contribution to a low carbon economy

Figure 2: High, medium and low density off gas-grid properties and under-utilised woodland in the HoTSW area

3.7Recreation, health and education – the ‘Non-Timber’ economy

3.8Jobs within the forestry and woodland sector

3.9Gross Value Added

4.Growth opportunities contributing to HoTSW LEP priority areas

5.Delivery and costs

6.Deliverables

7.Best practice and linkages

8.A non-funded scenario

1.Introduction

The Heart of the South West (HoTSW) Forestry Enterprise Action Plan is acoordinated sector approach to capture expanding market opportunities for woodand wood related products. Rural employment, apprenticeships, low carbon timber and renewable fuel will be delivered through growth in the sector, whilst also releasing resources from local woodland and hedgerows. Collaboration and sustainability will be cross-cutting themes integral to all areas of development, embedding connectivity and best practice.

Throughout 2015-20 facilitated investment, supply chain and market developments, specialist business support,and training – all focused on specific development opportunities- will enablethe woodland sector[1] to increase productivity, reach new markets and improve the skills base. HoTSWLocal Enterprise Partnership (LEP) priorities will be met through:

Securing the Capital: / The Supply Chain: / SME Competitiveness: / A Skilled and Qualified Workforce:
increasing forest, woodland and hedgerow management and developing the resource for the future / developing the wood chain, including woodfuel / enabling enterprise, innovation and, reaching new markets / creating rural jobs, apprenticeships, maintaining and increasing knowledge and skill levels
Collaboration & Sustainability

Woodlands and the businesses they support, either directly or indirectly, are economically important to the HoTSW LEP area. Similarly the woodland of the area are highly significant in environmental and landscape terms and the importance of the environmental Distinctive Assets to economic prosperity now and in the future is recognised within the HoTSW LEP’s strategy. Woodlands have been noted as providing significant ecosystems services across all the ecosystem services categories (provisioning, regulating and cultural).

2.Our aspirations for the HoTSW LEP area

To increase the proportion of industries making use of wood in the HoTSW area, to benefit the productivity of local woodland, businesses and community enterprises, and to replace ‘carbon heavy’ materials in a range of economic sectors with wood, including: construction, low carbon housing, engineered products and wood fuel.
A secured resource:

• For 66% of all woodlands in the HoTSW LEP area to be in management this would mean increasing the management area from 47,000ha (46%) to 67,500ha or by 20,500ha. In economic terms increasing this will create 84 jobs with a related increase in GVA of £1,932,000 (84x£23,000[2]).
• A good proportion of this wood is used by local businesses and community enterprises that are made increasingly aware of the opportunities for local sourcing.
• Woodland owners in The Heart of the South West are aware of the opportunities and future needs and potential for their woodlands; how to take those opportunities, and of the organisations and companies that they might collaborate with.
• Further woodland creation mitigates the forecasted reduction in commercial timber.

Growth across the supply chain:

• If a further 20,500ha of woodland were to be managed bringing approximately 93,275 tonnes of timber to market annually[3] an additional 238[4] jobs are created. For the proportion of this wood that is utilised in the non-fuel uses then the carbon is captured for the lifetime of the product.

Greater enterprise, innovation and SME competitiveness, reaching new markets:

• Existing businesses in The Heart of the South West are able to make the most of innovations (e.g. engineered timber, pyrolysis, technology to maximise production and value adding) within the industry and the market opportunities that arise from the context of the HoTSW area (e.g. housing growth, new or fast developing industries such as biomass renewables, a vibrant and increasingly higher value tourism market), new marketing innovations such as online platforms (e.g. business to business sales in food area – extending to wood), and the increasing branding opportunity eg. Online sales of local brand) and to ‘localise’ relevant national and international innovations.
• New businesses opportunities are explored and created by new entrants and existing businesses.
• Community enterprises are supported by the industry to flourish.

• The area takes best opportunity of the Grown in Britain movement[5] mirroring the development of industry led partnership to maximise the use of local wood products.

• Existing and new businesses maximise the opportunity of computer aided design, use of digital technology etc., in their production, marketing and sales processes.

A skilled and qualified workforce:

• Those working within the sector are continually developing their own skills and those of the industry in its widest sense (e.g. through apprenticeships, business skills, mentoring and keeping abreast of relevant future skills). They have access to the latest informationand up to date research in easily accessible formats.

3.The sector – Opportunities for growth

3.1How woodlands contribute to the HoTSW LEP area

Woodlands have for centuries provided goods to the inhabitants of the LEP area and beyond – attested to by the continued presence of the charcoal hearths of the smelting industry in the woods themselves and the presence of oak beams, and of course, fire places in many traditional and new buildings). They continue to contribute in a variety of important ways to the economic well-being of the LEP area including:

• Through wood products both
• traditional (logs, bars, chipwood for reprocessing into chipboard, particle, strand board etc.), and
• developing (woodfuel and engineered wood products such as glulam beams, fingerjointed larger dimension material etc.);
• artisan goods (from sculpture to restaurant grade charcoal);
• Through ‘in-wood’ other activities e.g. recreation (shooting, walking, cycling, cabins, paintballing etc.) and their associated businesses;
• Through ‘wider ecosystems services’ including
• ‘cultural services’ – acting as both a backdrop and a location for tourism, and an opportunity to enhance our well being through enjoying natural, tranquil spaces – a particularly important resource to regional assets, such as the protected landscapes of our National Parks, AONBs and Nature Improvement Area which would benefit from more managed woodland;
• Vital ‘regulatory services’ necessary for life (mitigating flood risk, purifying water, providing clean air, maintenance of soil quality and provision of organic materials, storing carbon to reduce the extent of climate change[6] etc.).

In addition the woodland sector has a number of attributes of relevance to developing its economic potential including:

• A few larger estates or management units such as the Forestry Commission, Duchy, Crown, Clinton Devon etc., to a very large number of small woodland owners often with very small woodland areas in their ownership, to woodlands on farms when the woodland is usually subsidiary to the main farm business;
• Geographically dispersed – which creates both a challenge and an opportunity (e.g. for wood as a fuel);
• A variety of accessibilities – some with excellent within wood infrastructure of roads and loading bays and located near good public road infrastructure to small isolated woodlands with limited or no within woodland infrastructure and accessible by narrow lanes.

3.2The woodland resource

Estimates of area of woodlands, standing volumes and timber forecasts are set out below[7]:

Woodland Area (ha) / 102,200
Forestry Commission managed woodland (ha) (conifer/ broadleaf) / 10,700 (10.5%[8])
(8,100 / 2,600)
Private sector woodland area (ha)
(conifer/ broadleaf) / 91,500 (89.5%)
(17,500 / 73,900)
% of all woodland in some form of active management / Approx. 46%
% of area with evidence of thinning[9] within private sector woodlands (all species)[10]. / Approx. 20%
Standing volume (000 m3 obs)[11] / 26,108
Biomass stock (000 odt)[12] / 20,313
Carbon stocks (000t) / 10,156
Potential area of increased management (ha) / 20,5003
Potential increase in tonnes per annum / 93,275

Much of the private sector broadleaved resource is not in active management. The theoretical timber that could be realised on a sustainable basis from this under-managed resource is significant (Figure 1[13]), with the ‘unrestricted’ scenario showing the potential for hardwood timber if management constraints were addressed and under-utilized woodland brought into management. A significant barrier to economic potential is the size of the individual woodlands. Figures are not yet available for the LEP but the figures for the South West Region (as was) indicate that 30% of woodlands, by area, are sub 20ha in size with the remaining 70% 20ha or larger. This proportion should reflect the HoTSW LEP woodland scales reasonably well (they are 40% of the region’s woodlands).

Figure 1: Comparison of hardwood production between harvesting scenarios over 50-year forecast

In addition the local resource needs securing. The availability of commercial timber, both hardwood and softwood, is forecast to steadily reduce in the HoTSW area[14]and if not addressed through further woodland creation this could become the single biggest challenge to growth facing the wood processing sector in the future, eroding business confidence and threatening jobs.

3.3The hedgerow resource

With 53,000km[15]of the most extensive and intact hedgerow network in the country found within the HoTSW area there is significant potential to establish the management of hedges for woodfuel to drive sustainable landscape management. Only about 40% of hedges in the south west are currently in favourable condition but most are highly accessible and could be managed to produce worthwhile crop of wood fuel whilst enhancing hedgerow contribution to biodiversity and carbon storage. Through coppicing hedgerows and chipping the cut wood energy can be produced at approximately 2-3p/KWh, comparable to oil at about 6p/KWh[16].

3.4Supply chain

The ‘wood chain’ reaches across the sector from tree nurseries and planting services to timber production, hauliers, processing (see Table 1), suppliers and retailers, suppliers of forestry related equipment, andincludes non-timber activities such as recreational, tourism and education which rely on woodland and forestry (see section 3.6). The wood energy chain also specifically includes a growing number of suppliers/retailers of biomass products and installers of renewable heat installations and retrofit solutions.

Table 1: Wood chain businesses[17]relevant to HoTSW area

Primary processing: / Sawmills, veneer manufacturers, wood carvers, wood turners, furniture makers, charcoal makers, hedge laying, hurdle makers
Secondary processing / Saw log- timber construction products, eg, joinery grade timber, structural beams, paper, pulp and board manufacturers, fibre board manufacturers
Small round wood - stake (fencing, gate, bar) manufacturers, seasoned logs, kindling, wood chips
Residuals - animal bedding, compressed briquettes, pellets
New – glulam beams, finger-jointed larger dimension materials
Tertiary processing: / Final stage of processing and uses the products of secondary processing to manufacturer products frequently sold to the individual consumer, e.g., furniture and kitchen units production

Greater collaboration within the supply chain will help to secure and develop new market opportunities. Processing industries could benefit from greater awareness among woodland owners of the requirements of the processing industries and the need for longer term security of wood supplies to enable confident investment in additional wood processing capacity. Supporting existing wood processing businesses to increase the demand for round-wood couldalsomake a significant potential contribution to other parts of the economy such as agriculture and construction[18].

The local wood chain is currently served by the web-based South West Directory of Woodland Products and Services ( which has the potential to be developed into a more sales-oriented platform, with the facility to distribute order enquiries to listed members. Wood fuel suppliers can currently be registeredon theRenewable Heat Incentive Biomass Suppliers list ( and the National Biofuel Suppliers Database (

Several local forestry initiatives support the wood chain offering expertise, advice and can offer an impartial ‘broker’ service and coordinating services. Additionally, collaborative initiatives, such as the Ward Forester enterprise (wardforester.co.uk) and Dartmoor Woodfuel Cooperative ( operate locally to facilitate groupings of woodland owners and wood users, respectively, to allow economies of scale through grouped woodland management and shortened supply chains.

Nationally,the Grown in Britain programme seeks to significantly increase markets for British grown wood products and to establish an ‘assured’ brand through its licensing scheme. A Grown in Britain consortium, led by English Woodlands Timber, has recently been awarded funding by Innovate UK, to explore how hard-wood supply chains could be improved. Regional initiatives work closely with Grown in Britain to source opportunities for the sector locally, Torbay Council is the first Grown in Britain local authority - bringing their 40 woodlands into active management and providing resource for the local processing sector.

3.5Processing– the ‘Timber’ economy

The processing sector employs approximately 14,000 people regionallywhen primary, secondary and tertiary activities are included, with a further 5,953 estimated to be dependent on the sector when employment multiplier effects are taken into account[19]. Larger sawmills within the HoTSW area include Norbord, Brookridge Timber, West Country Timber Supplies and Minehead Sawmills. Wood products directed at the construction market from existing processing businesses are likely to be the most commercially viablefor processing more of the potentially available round-wood[20]. With 27,370 house build starts in the first quarter of 2013 in England[21]and 25% of new-builds in the UK being timber framed there are considerable opportunities to increase market share within housing developments[22].

Investment in the manufacture of niche or engineered building products isalso considered financially viable within the South West region, particularly if vertically integrated into such as design and build construction and supported by technical expertise[23]. These may include small, but growing markets in such as: kiln-dried products suitable for internal joinery andstructural work; finger-jointed and laminated products using sawed and glued wood. Secondary processor Buckland Timber in Crediton is a leading producerin glued laminated timber for a range of joinery products, including large span structural beams.

In addition to large dimension high quality timber, lower grade locally sourced round-wood is converted by sawmills and wood fuel processing businesses. Norbord, a South Molton based major panel-board producer, provides an important local market for regionally grown timber in terms of the high quantity of small round-wood it buys annual (approximately 25,000 tonnes per annum[24]).

Competing for this round-wood is a growing wood energy market with strong demand for firewood and woodchip aligned with the market growth for woodfuel boiler installations for both domestic and community properties. In some instances hardwood logs are worth more as firewood then in the saw log market[25]. Small scale processors are numerous and scattered across the area, but larger operators include Okehampton based Forest Fuels and Dunster Biomass Heating, Taunton. The pellet market is also growing rapidly, but most pelletsare currently imported into the area.

3.6Key contribution to a low carbon economy

The sector has a key role to play in the transition to a low carbon economy – developments in low carbon housing will provide opportunities for use of timber in new forms of engineered composite products[26], allowing locally procured timber to be sold as ‘climate-friendly’ and renewable solutions in the built environment. The carbon contained in timber construction materials remains stored for the duration of the product’s lifetime and these products have the lowest energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions of any standard building material. Building a house with wood rather than brick reduces carbon emissions by 10tonnes of carbon and that replacing 1 tonne of brick or concrete with the same volume of timber can save up to 1 tonne of carbon dioxide emissions[27]. Additionally, the resulting potential increase in local sustainable woodland management and investment in new woodland will enhance the longer term resource with its positive impact on climate regulation, via carbon storage – the sequestration of tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Wood not suitable for timber uses can supply renewable energy and provides an alternative to fossil fuels. With shortened supply chainslocal buildings can be economically heated with such as woodchip, biomass pellets and seasoned firewood, sourced from local woods and hedgerows, processed nearby, minimising transportation. There is great potential for wood energy from under-managed woodland to address fuel poverty and the challenge of decarbonising heating systems in the widespread off gas-grid properties (currently 83,000 homes in Devon). Community buildings and business units could also benefit – there are currently 63[28] schools in the countyreceiving oil and/or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) deliveries, which could be encouraged to switch to a lower carbon source of heating whilstsupporting the local economy. Many communities are actively pursuing community owned renewable energy schemes, which keep the economic benefits of energy local, rather than enabling leakage to the large energy companies.