Returning again to the recent suggestion to plant extensive forests in Wales, this should not be dismissed out of hand - not because of the questionable tourism benefits, but because this is one of our natural resources that can be developed and exploited, providing much needed jobs and a boost to the economy.
Wales is already heavily forested in places, with the Foresty Commission for Wales claiming that it provides 4,200 jobs and is worth £400 million a year to the economy. While the green lobby may object to the industrialisation of our landscapes, there are many areas, particularly around the South Wales Valleys, where forests can dramatically improve the view.
In my opinion, we should be planning to significantly increase our forested land, by say 100% over the next 10 years and 200% over 20 years – Britain is currently under supplied with timber, having to rely on imports from Scandinavia, so the potential demand is already there. But more importantly, we should not only be developing the primary timber business, but we should be looking to develop value added industries which use wood as a raw material including building materials, paper products and furniture.
I don’t think it is unrealistic to increase this sector to provide a further 20,000 jobs, and we can still let the tourists have their fun as well.
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Perhaps one day we'll have a small home-grown version of Ikea?
ReplyDeleteThe valleys could become a centre for manifacturing of paper products?
We could encourage more sustainable tourism and become an attractive destination for mountain biking and produce a few champion mountain bikers in the process?
Or start brewing some Welsh spruce beer? Hmmm.
I have a national park near me that is full of mountain bike trails, wildlife conservation zones and they use it as a sustainable timber source. We could definitely do with a lot more of these across Wales.
ReplyDeleteI'd also like to see a park ranger style branch of the police. Other countries have them.