Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government’s plans for woodland creation will also raise woodland cover to 23% by 2045. Scotland is leading the UK, planting 75% of all new woodland in the past 10 years. The Government will continue to use the Forestry Grant Scheme and other levers such as the Woodland Carbon Code to maximise the resources available for woodland creation.

Scotland’s resilience to acute food security challenges comes largely from its diversity of supply. Scotland’s food and farming sectors have a critical role to play in Scotland’s food security, producing food for consumption in Scotland, and increasing our economic resilience through exports of food and drink.

We are making good progress towards the levels of peatland restoration implied by the CCC recommendations and to celebrate World Peatlands Day on 2 June, SG announced record levels of peatland restoration during 2024-25.

Through our Peatland ACTION partnership we have restored around 90,000 hectares of degraded Scottish peatlands to date with strong recent annual increases in rates enabled by associated increases in annual budgets.

I refer the member to our recently published Climate Change Plan Update Monitoring Report for 2025, which shows our progress against the individual policies in the agriculture and land use sectors.

The most recent Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics from 2022 show that, compared to the 1990 baseline, emissions in land use are down 96.3% and agriculture is down 11.9%. The Climate Change Committee’s recent carbon budget advice to the Scottish Government projects that agriculture will form a part of our residual emissions to 2045, to be offset by land use sinks and engineered removals.

The Climate Change Committee’s projection of a 36% reduction in cattle and sheep numbers by 2045 is based on UK-wide dietary modelling and does not reflect Scotland-specific market dynamics. The Scottish Government has no policy to reduce livestock numbers and is committed to supporting the sector to improve productivity, resilience and emissions intensity.

Alongside exploring options such as improved breeding and methane-reducing feed products, the Scottish Government is supporting rural communities to integrate new income streams alongside existing farming enterprises, including through tree planting and bioenergy crops.

We are also investing £40 million annually through the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme to help improve beef herd efficiency, implementing calving interval conditionality. This support enables farmers to reduce emissions intensity while maintaining production – ensuring that high-quality Scottish beef continues to be produced sustainably..

The Scottish Government promotes and facilitates the procurement of healthy, fresh and seasonal produce in contracts for food and catering to support our vision of Scotland as a Good Food Nation.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, proposes a range of opportunities to increase the quality and provenance of food and drink procured.

The Act legislates for a number of levers to achieve delivery of the Scottish Government food and drink policy including the sustainable procurement duty where public bodies have a legal duty to take account of how they can improve the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of their area through their procurement activities.

National procurement policy with respect to the climate emergency is set out in Scottish Procurement Policy Note 3/2022 Public procurement - taking account of climate and circular economy considerations. The policy highlights that public bodies should use their public procurement spend to support climate and circular economy ambitions, and signposts sources of support to embed this policy in practice which include the Scottish Government funded Sustainable Procurement Tools which host tools, guidance, case studies and climate and circular economy e-learning.

According to information provided by 107 public bodies in their annual procurement reports for 2022-23, examples of the ways in which environmental wellbeing and climate change were addressed through procurement included: environmental criteria in procurement exercises, using climate action plan templates, and encouraging staff to complete climate literacy eLearning.

The Scottish Government’s Land Use Strategy supports our ambition to achieve sustainable land use in Scotland.

The third Strategy was published in March 2021 and resets our focus on the integrated nature of land use, by showcasing the range of demands and benefits we get from our land.

It is through understanding these multiple and sometimes conflicting relationships that we can look to secure the fine balance that will be needed to allow our land to contribute sustainably to our multiple long term national priorities.

The initial development of Scotland’s fourth Land Use Strategy began in late 2024, with the final strategy due for publication in 2026. It will continue our focus on integration and deriving multiple benefits from land.

We are currently working to finalise the Bioenergy Policy Statement (BPS).The draft BPS sets out the ambition for the future of bioenergy, including outlining principles and priorities for biomass use, pathways for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, and the potential to scale up the domestic planting of perennial energy crops. Developing a thriving and homegrown market for the domestic production of energy crops can help deliver a just transition for our energy sector and provide opportunities for rural communities.

Our draft BPS highlights that expanding the domestic planting of energy crops must only be done where it does not negatively impact wider land use needs, and requirements, such as sustainable food production, and development of the bioenergy sector must align with and support Scotland’s goals for protecting and restoring nature.

Scotland already produces a wide range of fruit and vegetables; the Scottish Government provides funding through the Fruit and Vegetables Aid Scheme enabling groups of growers, recognised as Producer Organisations (POs), to increase their competitiveness in the supply chain. We have confirmed that support for the Fruit and Vegetables Aid Scheme in Scotland will continue for another round of operational programmes from 2026, and remain committed to supporting the valuable fruit and vegetable sector in Scotland.

The Scottish Government recently carried out a consultation looking to review livestock feed controls. We are currently analysing responses to our proposals to relax rules to allow wider use of processed animal protein (PAP) in animal feed. These changes would allow our legislation to reflect current scientific evidence and advice, and allow business innovation in the animal feed sector. They would also allow the Scottish Government to support industry in achieving sustainable farming goals by reducing reliance on imported Soyabean and fishmeal protein for poultry and pig feed.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting rural employment and providing ongoing opportunities for those involved or wanting to be involved in our land-based sectors, which each contribute to climate action. We do this through many different initiatives.

As set out in the Land Based Learning Review Implementation plan, which was published on 29 January 2025, acting on the recommendations of the independent review will contribute to attracting and equipping more people with the right skills and knowledge that are vital for economic growth, building sustainable communities and addressing the nature and climate crises.

We fund LANTRA Scotland, to contribute to increasing the number and diversity of skilled employees in the land-based, aquaculture and environment sectors by promoting the diverse and rewarding careers available and the economic and environmental benefits of investing in skills.

We support initiatives such as the Farm Advisory Service, the Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund, the New Entrants programme, the Next Generation Practical Training Fund, and the Land-based Pre-apprentice Programme.

Within the forestry sector, examples include: supporting the Industry Leadership Skills Group to establish Forestry Training Services (UK); the delivery of the Women in Forestry and Future Foresters practical training funds; and the Working Woods Scotland course available through the Association of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers.

Through the publication of our upcoming Land use and Agriculture Just Transition Plan and Rural Delivery Plan, we also seek to cover a wider range of key areas that impact on rural employment, such as agriculture, marine, land reform, transport, housing, skills, digital connectivity, economic development, and health and social care.

As the way we use our land evolves and adapts to meet the climate challenge, these activities will ensure the people who work in our agricultural industry and other land-based sectors are supported to continue to deliver both sustainable food production and improved integrated land use.