The Scottish Government has abandoned plans to lease parts of the country's national forests to private companies as part of recently announced measures to help combat climate change.

Forestry Commission Scotland will now look at other ways of raising the money necessary to carry out tree planting schemes in a bid to ensure Scotland's national forests make a greater contribution to tackling climate change. Measures include the development of joint ventures on renewable energy sources, lobbying for more tax incentives and continuing to dispose of surplus land to raise funds for the creation of new woodlands.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust has welcomed the decision not to lease woodlands to private companies. The trust's director of conservation, Jonny Hughes, said: "To lease out 25 per cent of our public forest estate would have substantially eroded the role of the Forestry Commission, which in turn would have had a detrimental impact on individual species, habitats and future action to adapt to climate change across Scotland."