The Sheep and Trees initiative: a first step towards integrated agroforestry in Scotland?

ABSTRACT

The Sheep and Trees initiative was introduced by the Scottish Government in 2017 as part of wider efforts to support farm diversification and the promotion of tree planting aligned with meeting sustainable development objectives. Designed to promote integrated forestry in upland farming across Scotland, the initiative has, to date, had a very low uptake. This study explores attitudes within the Scottish upland farming community towards integrated forestry in general and the Sheep and Trees initiative specifically in an attempt to understand why uptake has been low. We found that although upland farmers had positive attitudes towards certain types of integration, reinforcing the findings of previous studies, negative attitudes were also widespread which could act as a deterrent towards participation in the Sheep and Trees initiative. The species of trees and styles of planting supported by the Sheep and Trees initiative appear to be misaligned with the preferences of farmers wishing to adopt an integrated forestry system. The paper concludes with some recommendations for refining the Sheep and Trees initiative which could enhance its attractiveness to large scale, commercial concerns and to other upland farmers interested in planting trees for amenity and environmental benefits.

KEYWORDS:

• Integrated forestry
• upland farming
• Sheep and Trees initiative

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Fiona Williams for her comments on an earlier version of this contribution and the two anonymous referees who both provided useful suggestions for improving the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Upland sheep farm diversification could include, for example, identifying new markets for wool products, rearing ‘fancy’ or unusual breeds which are attractive to ‘hobby’ farmers and command higher prices than commercial breeds and becoming involved in carbon trading initiatives.

2 £5 per ewe is not in itself a large sum. The agricultural census reports that most sheep enterprises in the north of Scotland run between 100 and 300 ewes thus savings of between £500 and £1,500 per annum could be gained. Such annual savings are thus quite small, but benefits could accrue over time.