Woodland ownership: key data

Woodland ownership in Scotland

On 1 December 2020 estimates for different ownership types of woodland across Great Britain, including Scotland, were published. The statistical report presents the analyses of a survey of woodland owners carried out between 2012 and 2015. Read the full report.

The estimates for woodland ownership in Scotland are set out in Table 1, on page 11 of the report. The key data are:

Ownership type	Woodland area (000) ha	% of country woodland area
Public Forest Estate* [National forest and lands]	527.9**	38.4
Local Authority	7.0	0.5
Crown, Church and Educational Institution	0***	0
Other Public - not PFE or Local Authority	21.4	1.6
Charity funded by voluntary subscription	37.0	2.7
Private forestry or timber business	57.7	4.2
Private Personal	546.1	39.8
Private Business - companies, partnerships and syndicates	146.6	10.7
Private Community	13.8	1.0
Mixed	2.6	0.2
Other	13.5	1.0

Notes:

*Public forest estate: term used in the report to describe government owned woodland formerly managed by the Forestry Commission. This ownership type is also defined as “forested land” under Section 12 of the Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Act 2018.

**The statistical methodology for collating this data is set out in the full report.

***No data were collated for this ownership type.

Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Act 2018 (The Act)

Scottish Ministers consider that the publication of this data meets the requirement under Section 14 of the Act to publish appropriate information on forest holdings in Scotland.