IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v11y2022i10p1753-d937065.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing the Area of Suitable Land for Climate Change Mitigation with Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) in Scotland

Author

Listed:
  • Ismaila Abimbola

    (Department of Environmental Science, Atlantic Technological University (ATU), F91 YW50 Sligo, Ireland)

  • Diana Feliciano

    (TUIBS Finance, Performance & Marketing, Teesside University International Business School, Middlesbrough TS1 3BX, UK)

Abstract

One of the key areas in which the United Kingdom government plans to achieve net zero, reduce GHG emissions and sequester carbon is through afforestation. Afforestation will also provide ecosystem services to society. The Scottish government’s target is to increase woodland cover in Scotland to 25% by 2050. In this study, a land suitability analysis was used to investigate the likelihood of achieving this target based on the biophysically suitable and available land considering the current policy constraints for planting Sitka spruce ( Picea sitchensis ) in Scotland. The results showed that about 19% of land area in Scotland is biophysically suitable for Sitka spruce and about 13% is biophysically suitable and available based on policy constraints. Thus, there is an opportunity for the Scottish government to increase the woodland cover in Scotland to 31.5% and exceed its 25% woodland target. However, for Scotland to achieve net zero by 2045, it will require that more trees be planted on higher-quality agricultural land, different from areas where trees are currently planted.

Suggested Citation

  • Ismaila Abimbola & Diana Feliciano, 2022. "Assessing the Area of Suitable Land for Climate Change Mitigation with Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) in Scotland," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-23, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:10:p:1753-:d:937065
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/10/1753/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/10/1753/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nijnik, Maria & Pajot, Guillaume & Moffat, Andy J. & Slee, Bill, 2013. "An economic analysis of the establishment of forest plantations in the United Kingdom to mitigate climatic change," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 34-42.
    2. Matthews, K.B. & Wardell-Johnson, Doug & Miller, Dave & Fitton, Nuala & Jones, Ed & Bathgate, Stephen & Randle, Tim & Matthews, Robin & Smith, Pete & Perks, Mike, 2020. "Not seeing the carbon for the trees? Why area-based targets for establishing new woodlands can limit or underplay their climate change mitigation benefits," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    3. Iain Brown & Marie Castellazzi & Diana Feliciano, 2014. "Comparing Path Dependence and Spatial Targeting of Land Use in Implementing Climate Change Responses," Land, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-24, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Iain Brown & Marie Castellazzi & Diana Feliciano, 2014. "Comparing Path Dependence and Spatial Targeting of Land Use in Implementing Climate Change Responses," Land, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-24, July.
    2. Hopkins, Jonathan & Sutherland, Lee-Ann & Ehlers, Melf-Hinrich & Matthews, Keith & Barnes, Andrew & Toma, Luiza, 2017. "Scottish farmers' intentions to afforest land in the context of farm diversification," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 122-132.
    3. Matthews, K.B. & Wardell-Johnson, Doug & Miller, Dave & Fitton, Nuala & Jones, Ed & Bathgate, Stephen & Randle, Tim & Matthews, Robin & Smith, Pete & Perks, Mike, 2020. "Not seeing the carbon for the trees? Why area-based targets for establishing new woodlands can limit or underplay their climate change mitigation benefits," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    4. Shenghui Zhou & Ke Wang & Shiqi Yang & Wenli Li & Yuxuan Zhang & Bin Zhang & Yiming Fu & Xiaoyan Liu & Yadi Run & Oliva Gabriel Chubwa & Guosong Zhao & Jinwei Dong & Yaoping Cui, 2020. "Warming Effort and Energy Budget Difference of Various Human Land Use Intensity: Case Study of Beijing, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-15, August.
    5. Duckett, Dominic & Bjørkhaug, Hilde & Mur, Laura Arnalte & Palmioli, Lucia, 2022. "New ‘old’ risks on the small farm: Iconic species rewilding in Europe," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    6. Smyth, Mary-Ann, 2023. "Plantation forestry: Carbon and climate impacts," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    7. Salles, Thiago Taglialegna & Nogueira, Denismar Alves & Beijo, Luiz Alberto & Silva, Liniker Fernandes da, 2019. "Bayesian approach and extreme value theory in economic analysis of forestry projects," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 64-71.
    8. Yuxin Fan & Fang Wei, 2022. "Contributions of Natural Carbon Sink Capacity and Carbon Neutrality in the Context of Net-Zero Carbon Cities: A Case Study of Hangzhou," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-20, February.
    9. Westaway, Sally & Grange, Ian & Smith, Jo & Smith, Laurence G., 2023. "Meeting tree planting targets on the UK's path to net-zero: A review of lessons learnt from 100 years of land use policies," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:10:p:1753-:d:937065. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.