United Kingdom: COST E30 Economic integration of urban consumers’ demand and rural forestry production. Forest sector entrepreneurship in Europe: Country studies.

Although there is a very wide size range of private forest/woodland units in the UK, the majority of non-industrial private forest (woodland) holdings are small. The objectives of many owners are more orientated towards amenity than commercial forestry. The low profitability of private forestry is compounded by relatively high wage rates and other production costs and low timber prices. In the UK there is a weakly developed wood culture. Other materials dominate construction and wood products are not seen as high performance materials. The wood product market is dominated by imports and there is a lack of skilled workers and designers in the UK. While there has been a growth of demand for many NTFPs, the same pattern of import dominance prevails. Even where market opportunities exist, firms are likely to remain small. In the UK labour costs are quite high and there may be labour shortages in areas with high levels of NTFP. There can be logistical problems with trying to aggregate supplies from small fragmented forests. In some non timber forest services, such as active recreation, the UK may be advantaged by a large and dense population, but the state forest sector, rather than private woodland owners may be in a better position to provide such facilities, although nearby related private service providers may benefit.