Will the Minister clarify whether an economic impact assessment was carried out before deciding that Natural Resources Wales could sell up to 30 per cent of its timber through alternatives to sale for highest financial value?
NRW aims to sell all of its timber for the highest value. Traditionally this value has largely been measured financially, but the aspiration in NRW’s current Timber Sales and Marketing Plan is to explore how NRW might sell up to 30% of timber in ways that recognise wider social value. The timber’s wider value to NRW and Wales could, for example, include social or community benefits arising from its use, benefits to the protection of non-commercial woodland characteristics and habitats, or the economic and carbon reduction benefits of encouraging greater use of timber in construction
Incorporating appropriate non-financial values into timber sale methods and decisions will help NRW to incentivise and maintain the sustainable management of natural resources in all of its woodlands, not just the commercially valuable ones. NRW envisage a position where most of this timber is still sold competitively, so price will still be very important, but the bids may be judged on more than just price alone. The precise approaches to alternative sales are still being developed, and the economic impacts of these approaches will be assessed as part of that process.