Lessons from Britain's Forest Future Exchange
In mid-November, I attended the Britain's Forest Future: Research-Practice Exchange in Durham, one of the UK’s
most significant knowledge exchange events for forest and woodland research,
policy and practice. Organised by the Department for Environment Food and Rural
Affairs (Defra), the Future of UK treescapes initiative and the Centre for Forest
Protection. The conference brought together UK-wide government
representatives, third-sector organisations, forestry and land-based
practitioners, managers, and researchers to explore urgent challenges: climate
adaptation, biodiversity loss, sustainable and profitable timber production,
and the need to balance these alongside ecological and economic goals.
The event showcased cutting-edge research alongside
practice-driven innovation. While the conference was primarily Defra funded and
therefore remained largely England-focused, many insights are highly valuable
for cross-border collaboration and can help inform thinking about resilient
forest and land-based sectors in Scottish rural and island landscapes and
communities. This connects directly with our ReRIC Project, which explores
emerging opportunities and persistent challenges for sustainable, inclusive futures.
Key Reflections:
Resilience requires integration, not just information
The keynote from Professor Bianca Ambrose-Oji, Chief Scientist at Forest Research, opened with a stark reality check: The UK still imports around 80% of its timber (Forest Research, 2024). Continued reliance on imports exposes the sector and wider supply chain to global market fluctuations, reinforcing the urgent need to strengthen domestic production.
This is particularly pertinent for Scotland, where forestry contributes an estimated £1.1 billion Gross Value Added: £878 million from forestry and timber processing and supply chain activities, and £252 million from forestry related recreation and tourism.
Despite a strong evidence base for forest adaptation and diversification, some practitioners attending the event still felt research did not go far enough to be grounded in reality. There were repeated calls for stronger integration between research, policy and practice, aligning with the Scottish Government’s Draft ‘Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture:(ENRA) research strategy 2027-2032’, which emphasises ‘living labs’ - real world testbeds where communities, researchers and land managers collaborate to trial and scale up innovative solutions tailored to local needs.
Disturbances and Climate Challenges
Forest disturbances from storms, disease threats, droughts, fires and pest pressure (notably deer and grey squirrel damage) featured prominently throughout the event. The evidence was clear: climate change is not a distant threat but a present reality, increasingly shaping tree health, management decision making, timber supply chains and the viability of native species, while already shown to be mounting pressure on managers and practitioners right now.
Speakers repeatedly emphasised that diversity, both in species composition and stakeholder involvement is central to our resilience, yet current approaches remain largely reactive rather than proactive.
Tools, Guidance and Practitioner Support
The conference reinforced that research alone is insufficient, practitioners require practical guidance, toolkits and integrated decision support systems to apply knowledge effectively. Across sessions, actionable outputs that support on the ground decision making were highlighted as necessary for future-ready forest management.
Deer Pressure: A Cross Cutting Theme
One of the most striking cross-cutting issues was deer pressure, marked as a clear gap where social science is particularly needed. Deer numbers were identified as a major barrier to woodland diversification, timber value, planting targets, and broader land restoration. Key challenges include:
- Shortages and limited diversity within the deer stalking workforce (particularly an ageing trajectory of trained deer stalkers), highlighting the need to future proof skills and capacity
- Inconsistent management across landscapes and landowners
with differing objectives (despite ongoing exemplary work such as in the
Scottish uplands by The Common Ground Forum)
- Dysfunctional or non-integrated venison supply chains
(current work to tackle this remains somewhat sporadic)
- Behavioural and cultural barriers to collaboration (a key
and continued gap)
This highlighted the vital role of science in understanding
motivations, supporting behavioural change and designing interventions that can
make deer management effective, socially acceptable, and sustainable for rural
communities and beyond.
Lessons for Scotland and Rural Futures
Although Scotland was not a central focus of the conference, several lessons are directly transferable:
- Engaging practitioners, communities and stakeholders early to co-produce solutions and ensure interventions address real sectoral and landscape needs.
- Integrate social science insights into natural resource
management challenges, such as behavioural change to incentivise public support
where appropriate for management strategies.
- Design policies, tools and interventions that consider
economic, ecological, social and cultural dimensions holistically.
- Address workforce and skills gaps, including within deer management, forestry and inter-related supply chains. This includes responding to an ageing workforce(s), supporting training providers, developing skills to meet tree planting targets, ecological restoration, stakeholder engagement, and improving sustainable venison and timber supply chains.
- Explore and test lessons in living lab contexts, providing hands-on opportunities to trial workforce, management, and market solutions in real lived landscapes, with ongoing feed-in from those directly involved in place.
The Britain’s Future Forest Conference highlighted both the challenges and opportunities in making forests and forestry resilient, productive, and socially legitimate. For the ReRIC project, these lessons underline the importance of co-design, community engagement and research-practice integration, providing a valuable evidence base to help shape resilient forest futures in Scotland’s rural and island communities and beyond.