More than 130 forestry and arboricultural professionals from across the UK gathered in Cardiff on 22-23 April for the Institute of Chartered Foresters’ national conference entitled “Timber, Mutton or Fuel?”.

During the conference, opened by Welsh Assembly Minister for Rural Affairs Elin Jones who gave the keynote speech, the harsh reality that climate change will increasingly influence priorities for land use was brought home. Climate change is the most significant the forestry industry has had to address – a point emphasised by Roger Street, Technical Director of the UK Climate Impacts Programme among others addressing the conference.

Future policy was called into question as speakers looked at the possible impacts on the range of species that should be planted. Delegates heard that silvicultural practices will also need to be adapted if the predicted climate change impacts materialise.

Speakers from the private sector included Oliver Combe, BSW Timber, who looked at the future markets for timber while William Worsley, Deputy President of the Country Land & Business Association, gave the landowner’s argument as to who should be driving species planting and where the pressures for development on woodland are coming from.

On day two, the conference opened with an international land use perspective first from environmental economist Dr Pushpam Kumar from the University of Liverpool. Pushpam introduced the concept of ecosystem services and how they can be valued as part of the work of a major project, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Study (TEEB). He was followed by Petri Lehtonen, Managing Director of Indufor Fi, who talked about Finland’s significant new market trend towards biofuel use; a useful benchmark for the UK forestry industry.

The conflicting priorities for land use were highlighted further firstly with a strong argument from Neal Hockley, lecturer in Environmental Policy at Bangor University, on the important factors which determine the balance between food production and forest cover, globally and in the UK. Professor Colin Price, Professor of Environmental and Forestry Economics, Bangor University, felt that fuel should be the over-riding priority over planting for fibre while Peter Wood, an adviser for international charity Tree Aid, countered them both with the demand that the priority is food over fuel.

The conference ended with a debate that left delegates clear that chartered forestry professionals have many new challenges to face as their industry adapts in the forthcoming years.