Rural Payments and Services

The Central Scotland Green Network is a development within the National Planning Framework. It aims to restore and transform the landscape, whilst making a significant contribution to Scotland's sustainable economic development.

The Central Scotland Green Network Contribution is a capital item that offers a capital payment in addition to the woodland creation initial planting payment.

If you're wondering if this item is right for you, we've produced a factsheet on the Central Scotland Green Network Contribution for new woodland creation in Central Scotland, Ayrshire and parts of Fife.

Within the Central Scotland Green Network Contribution Area the capital payment recognises the additional costs of establishment where your application supports the delivery of the relevant forest and woodland strategy and where you apply for the following woodland creation options:

• Conifer
• Diverse Conifer
• Broadleaves
• Native Upland Birch
• Native Broadleaves
• Small or Farm Woodland

For each woodland creation option to be eligible for the Central Scotland Green Network Contribution, over 50 per cent of that option’s area must sit within the Central Scotland Green Network Contribution Area.

The contribution will be eligible on up to 40 hectares per application. You can plant-up more than 40 hectares but we will cap the Central Scotland Green Network Contribution at 40 hectares.

Forestry Commission Scotland staff will assess applications to ensure that no two applications have been artificially sub-divided.

As part of the online application process, applicants will be required to select the appropriate fringe or core rate, for each eligible option, as a capital item from the list of capital grant operations as detailed in the Capital grant options table on the Woodland Creation page.

In an application, each different woodland creation option has to be designated as core or fringe – you cannot allocate both to the same option even if that same option is split into geographically separate blocks.

Different woodland creation options can have different contribution types if your application is for woodland blocks where one woodland creation option boundary is mainly in the core area and where a different woodland creation option boundary is mainly in the fringe area.

Where your proposed planting overlaps the core / fringe boundary, the type of Central Scotland Green Network Contribution Area (Core or Fringe) that you apply for, per woodland creation option, will be the area where the majority (50 per cent or more) of that woodland creation option is located.

If the boundary of your woodland creation proposal overlaps both the core and fringe areas, use the PDF below to work out which Central Scotland Green Network Contribution rate will apply.

Spatial guidance to help you locate your application within this area is available in the Central Scotland Green Network Contribution Area layer of the Forestry Commission Scotland Map Viewer. You should use this layer to find out if your application sits in the core or fringe area.

To be eligible for the Central Scotland Green Network Contribution, your application must support the type of woodland expansion identified in your local authority’s forestry and woodland strategy:

• Glasgow and Clyde Valley
• Edinburgh and Lothians
• Fife
• Stirling and Clackmannanshire
• Ayrshire and Arran
• Falkirk

You should explain how your proposal supports the forestry and woodland strategy in your Central Scotland Green Network Contribution supporting statement.

You can use the Forestry Commission Scotland Map Viewer to help locate your proposal within a forestry and woodland strategy area. The PDF below will help you to understand the map viewer information.

You must clearly explain how your application fits with the relevant forestry and woodland strategy, and how it will aid the delivery of local goals for woodland expansion. This information must be provided in your Central Scotland Green Network Contribution supporting statement.

The Central Scotland Green Network website gives more information on the initiative, and its key themes and priorities.

Information about Forestry Commission Scotland activity within the Central Scotland Green Network, including a map of the area and contact details, is available on the Forestry Commission Scotland website.

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