Planning authorities will need to develop a process to prepare their FWS. A staged approach to writing or updating a FWS might be particularly useful – the local Scottish Forestry Conservancy office will be able to advise.
Contact your local Conservancy Office
Typically, the following suggested stages might be followed:
- stage 1 - review the current forestry plan/context
- stage 2 - scope the FWS
- stage 3 - draft the FWS
- stage 4 - consult on the draft FWS
- stage 5 - finalise the FWS
Spatial data to help prepare a Forestry and Woodland Strategy
GIS-based maps will be invaluable to help visualise the existing and planned woodland in the area, and publicly available datasets will be vital for the planning authority to access, use, modify and share through their own software.
Downloadable data sets relevant to forestry in Scotland are available on the Scottish Forestry Open Data Portal.
Scottish Forestry Open Data Portal
Useful links from the Open Data Portal include the:
Also available through the Open Data Portal is the SpatialData Metadata Portal.
SpatialData Metadata Portal
This has key datasets for informing a FWS, such as:
- land capability for forestry
- land capability for agriculture
- flood risk management
- air quality management
- local and national nature designations
- inventories of scheduled monuments and battlefields
Policy information to help prepare a Forestry and Woodland Strategy
Using policy information to inform the FWS will help it reflect legislative and strategic commitments, in turn helping to identify key drivers for future land use in the area.
The most relevant source of policy information is Scotland's Forestry Strategy 2019-2029 which sets out the Scottish Government’s 50-year vision and objectives for Scotland’s forests and woodland, and six priority areas in order to realise this vision.
Scotland's Forestry Strategy 2019-2029
Table 3 sets out key national policies related to forestry.
There will be local strategies and policies that should inform the content of the FWS too, in combination helping to create a vision for the area’s forests and woodlands.
