The Forestry Commission has released the latest publication giving statistics of woodland area, certified woodland area and figures relating to areas of new planting and restocking. The area of woodland in the UK at March 2010 is estimated to be 2.85 million hectares or 12% of the total land area of the UK. In England it is 9%, in Wales, 14% in Scotland 17% and in N.Ireland 6%. The Forestry Commission, or Forest Service in N.Ireland, owns or manages 0.81 million hectares.
Total certified woodland amounts to 1.29 million hectares and includes all the Forestry Commission/Forestry Service land. About 45% of all British woodland is certified. In 2009-10, broadleaved species made up most of the new planting area of 5,400 hectares (90%). Over half (51%) of the new planting was in Scotland, 43% was in England, 4% in N.Ireland and 2% in Wales. Conifers made up 76% of the 15,100 hectares of restocked woodland. Most (53%) of the restocking was on FC/FS land with 63% of all stocking taking place in Scotland, 18% in England, 14% in Wales and 5% in N.Ireland.
Certified woodland is assessed regularly against an agreed standard called the UK Woodland Assurance Scheme. Timber from certified woodland is marketed with a label showing it to be certified only if the timber follows a Chain of Custody from forest to retail outlet that is also certified. All certified woodland in 2010 is also under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) scheme and some is certified under the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) scheme.
A National Forest Inventory Woodland Map will be published on 29 July 2010. The figures in the first release will be subject to revision as further results become available.
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