Scottish Government, Forestry Commission, Partnerships
Scottish Government
The Scottish Government, legally the Scottish Executive, is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was established in 1999 as the Scottish Executive, from the extant Scottish Office, and the term Scottish Executive remains its legal name under section 44 of the Scotland Act 1998. Following the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, the term Executive was replaced by the term Government by the new Scottish National Party administration. This terminology has been adopted by all of the main Scottish political parties, by the Scottish media, and by the United Kingdom's other devolved administrations. The UK Government, other UK politicians and the UK media also now mainly use the term Government when referring to the Scottish Administration
Forestry
Forestry is the art and science of managing forests, tree plantations, and related natural resources. The main goal of forestry is to create and implement systems that allow forests to continue a sustainable continuation of environmental supplies and services. The challenge of forestry is to create systems that are socially accepted while sustaining the resource and any other resources that might be affected.
Silviculture, a related science, involves the growing and tending of trees and forests. Modern forestry generally embraces a broad range of concerns, including assisting forests to provide timber as raw material for wood products, wildlife habitat, natural water quality management, recreation, landscape and community protection, employment, aesthetically appealing landscapes, biodiversity management, watershed management, erosion control, and preserving forests as 'sinks' for atmospheric carbon dioxide. A practitioner of forestry is known as a forester. Note that the word "forestry" can also refer to a forest itself.
Forest ecosystems have come to be seen as the most important component of the biosphere, and forestry has emerged as a vital field of science, applied art, and technology.
Forestry Commission
The Forestry Commission manages almost one million hectares of land in Great Britain, making it the country's biggest land manager. The majority of the land (60%) is in Scotland, 26% of the landholding is in England and the remainder in Wales. Some of Britain's best-loved and most spectacular landscapes are in its care. Activities carried out on the forest estate include maintenance and improvement of the natural environment and the provision of recreation, timber harvesting to supply domestic industry, regenrating brownfield andreplanting of harvested areas.
Afforestation was the main reason for the creation of the commission in 1919. Britain had only 5% of its original forest cover left and the government at that time wanted to create a strategic resource of timber. Since then forest area has more than doubled and the remit of the commission is much more focused on sustainable forest management and maximising public benefits.
The Forestry Commission is also the government body responsible for the regulation of private forestry (felling is generally illegal without first obtaining a licence from the Commission) and for encouraging new planting. Part of this role is carried out by providing grants in support of private forests and woodlands