After ERCS identified a breach of law, Scottish Forestry’s decisions on forestry projects will be more transparent.
Following an enquiry to ERCS’s free legal advice service, we identified that Scottish Forestry was in breach of the Forestry (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 by failing to publish screening opinions on whether an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is required for a forestry project.
Scottish Forestry initially dismissed our complaint on the basis that these documents can be requested via email. It was clear to us, however, that restricting access to information through a formal email request contradicts the public’s legal right to have it ‘available for inspection’ online, easily and without delay.
Undeterred, we raised the breach with Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) and requested them to enforce the law. Scottish Forestry has now agreed to comply with their legal duty.
Why is this important?
Everyone in Scotland has the right to access environmental information held by public authorities as enshrined in the UNECE Aarhus Convention. The Forestry (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 is a mechanism for realising this right in practice.
Screening opinions contain Scottish Forestry’s justifications for whether to require an EIA before approving forestry projects.
Tree planting is increasing in Scotland, with tens of thousands of hectares already planted under Scotland’s target to increase forest and woodland cover to 21% by 2030. However, there are growing concerns about the environmental impact of some commercial forestry: watch our info webinar to find out more.
What will change?
We have been informed by ESS that Scottish Forestry will publish a register of EIA screening opinions on its website.
However, despite that ESS agreed with our finding of a breach, we understand Scottish Forestry has not yet been given a fixed deadline to comply with the law.
We will follow up with both Scottish Forestry and ESS to chase compliance.
