Rural development forestry in the United Kingdom

Summary Rural Development Forestry (RDF) has been widely advocated as a means of better meeting local needs and demands on forests, in comparison with conventional forest practice. The roots of RDF can be found partly in developing countries and partly in new ways of addressing rural development in developed countries, especially in the European Union. In Scotland in particular, a wide-ranging critique has been levelled at conventional forest practitioners for failing to realize the full range of potential social and economic benefits at a local level. This paper explores the financial and economic feasibility of three locally derived options for RDF, which included amenity and employment enhancing forest-related actions, by comparing their returns with those of conventional systems. Using a range of discount rates and a modified Forest Investment Appraisal Package, the results of the study indicate that in the two areas investigated (Wester Ross and Morayshire), using a limited range of non-market estimates, the RDF options generated lower financial and social outputs than the conventional systems, and the cost per job created is high compared with typical cost per job figures in the regions studied. These estimates should be treated with some caution as they are location-specific and do not include all external costs and benefits. More detailed research at a local level is recommended as a means of ascertaining whether or not there is a clear financial and economic rationale for RDF.