Forestry and Land Scotland - draft corporate strategic plan 2026-2030: consultation

Finding a balance – a framework for prioritisation

FLS operates in a complex and evolving operating environment. We are required to fund most of our services from commercial income, in markets which are challenging in the short term – albeit which offer good potential over the medium term. In line with the Scottish Government’s Public Sector Reform agenda we are required to become more financially sustainable, and to reduce our total staffing over time to pre-Covid levels. We need to reconcile the, sometimes competing, asks of multiple valued stakeholders. These include local communities and representatives, visitors, commercial partners, regulators and our skilled staff.

We know we cannot do everything so we must prioritise to give the “best fit offer” of public value for Scottish Ministers. The inverted pyramid below gives a sense of how our time and resources are expected to be deployed in achieving our outcomes:

Our core activity remains stewardship of Scotland’s 637,000ha national forests and land for the benefit of Scotland’s people, and working to support Government’s net zero agenda. The majority of our staff time and cash resources are – and will continue to be – deployed on these core activities. As part of this core work we will:

• Manage the land to internationally recognised standards of sustainable forestry and land management. This means that safeguarding biodiversity, protecting water quality, improving resilience and providing public access is part of our core work;
• Deliver our legislative and regulatory obligations in partnership with stakeholders and local communities;
• Do this in line with our operating principles above; in a financially sustainable way, with partners, complementing our core Sustainable Forest Land Management (SFLM) competencies to add most value.

We endeavour to go beyond this to achieve more towards wider SG objectives where:

• It complements our core activity and leverages our SFLM competencies; and
• The work is fully funded, either from ‘core’ profits, or dedicated SG or external funding.
• Ideally we can work in partnership with others.

We are open to explore new opportunities and approaches (and dealing with new threats), being dynamic, strategic and selective ensuring that anything new will:

• Add long term value in delivering FLS’s mission;
• Be commercially sustainable; and
• Complement the delivery of our ‘core’ and ‘more’ commitments.