Roots for Future Growth

A strategy for Scotland's Forest and Timber Industries 2011-14


The Scottish forest and timber industries are a modern, growing sector with sustainability at its core that is making an increasingly valuable contribution to Scottish society, economy and environment.  It has the potential to double that contribution within a generation. "Roots for Future Growth" sets out how this can be done in the face of significant challenges - and the benefits that will be achieved.

In "Roots for Future Growth" we propose ways and means of making existing markets work better.  It is a plan for intervention that will be ambitious and highly cost-effective.  Most importantly, it will help Scotland to reduce the impact of climate change, become a low carbon economy, and help to meet the government target of generating 50% of energy from renewable sources by 2020 thus helping to improve energy security.
The "Roots for Future Growth" plan is to grow:
Industry's Contribution to Scotland. "Roots for Future Growth" calls for action to fully understand, measure and communicate the contribution of the forest industries to Scotland's society, economy and environment.
The Sustainable Resource. The Action Plan will seek to identify and remove barriers to the achievement of resource growth.  More specifically, it will address the obstacles to achieving more new productive planting, especially through stronger private sector involvement.  Our target is to increase new productive planting to 10,000 ha per annum within the next two years.
Markets and competitiveness The Plan aims to grow the market share and value added of Scotland's forest products through greater competitiveness and innovation in products, processing and the supply chain.  It will help realise the potential of wood products to secure a low carbon economy by providing new and innovative solutions to meet customer demand.  Our target is to increase the direct GVA of the forest industries by £1.1bn by 2025.
The skills and capacity of our people. The plan aims to make the forest industry an attractive and rewarding place to work where personal and career development are centre-stage and productivity maintains its upward trend.  Collaborative working will support greater receptiveness to innovation and the industry will be well served by its formal and informal organisations

Building on the previous "Roots for Growth" Forest Industries plan, published by  Scottish Enterprise and the Forest Industries Development Council (predecessor of ConFor) in 2000, a refreshed strategy has been developed by the Scottish Forest & Timber Technologies Advisory Group and Scottish Enterprise on behalf of the sector.


In "Roots for Future Growth" we propose ways and means of making existing markets work better.  It is a plan for intervention that will be ambitious and highly cost-effective.  Most importantly, it will help Scotland to reduce the impact of climate change, become a low carbon economy, and help to meet the government target of generating 50% of energy from renewable sources by 2020 thus helping to improve energy security.

The "Roots for Future Growth" plan is to:

  • grow and communicate the forest and timber industries' contribution to Scotland
  • grow the area of new productive forest planting
  • grow the market share and value-added of Scotland's forest products
  • grow the skills and capacity of the people involved in the industries


John Kissock OBE, Chair of the Scottish Forest and Timber Technologies Advisory Group comments:

"Roots for Future Growth' represents an important milestone for our timber and forest industries and sets out the challenge that lies ahead. Many years of sustained capital investment have given Scotland a solid base of internationally competitive timber processing facilities. The opportunity now is to deliver sustained growth in the establishment of productive forests, allied to innovation in product and process development which can add value to the raw material grown here in Scotland. To do so will not only restore confidence in investors and those employed in the industry, but will also ensure the industry is able to maximize its potential impact on both the economic and environmental well being of Scotland."

Group with Jim Mather

Representatives of the Forest and Timber industries
present the strategy to Jim Mather MSP, Minister for
Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, The Scottish Government.

The strategy can be downloaded below.

A media pack is available from the Scottish Enterprise Media Centre

Roots for Future Growth

Roof Joists 235 x 100

A Strategy for Scotland's Forest & Timber Sector

Scottish Forestry Strategy

Young hardwoods

The Scottish Government and Forestry Commission Scotland developed an overarching strategy for the wider role forests have in society.