Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of trends in (a) global and (b) national supplies of commercial timber supplies up to 2050.

Forest Research publish timber availability forecasts for softwood and hardwood in Great Britain over 25 and 50 year time horizons. Forecasts are adjusted over time as new data and improved models become available.

Current forecasts show that softwood availability changes over time increasing from an annual average availability of 17.15 million m³ in the period 2017 – 2021 to 18.4 million m³ in 2027 – 2031 before declining to 11.9 million m³ in 2047 -2051. A revised 25 year forecast will be published in 2022.

The department has not made estimates of global supplies of timber, however, data provided by Forest Research contribute to Forest Sector Outlook Studies produced by the UN Economic Commission for Europe.