Broadcaster Roy Noble joins campaign to stop mass tree-planting on farms

Roy Noble said that he had 'real empathy' with Welsh farming families who are 'out-bid' for land purchases by 'financial combines'

Distinguished broadcaster Roy Noble has joined a campaign urging the Welsh government to stop mass tree-planting on agricultural land.

Mr Noble, who has been a constant feature on Welsh radio and TV for decades, also urged Welsh government to curtail ‘outside interests’ and ‘juggernaut companies’ from doing the same.

The OBE recipient said that he had “real empathy” with farming families who “are out-bid” for land purchases by “financial combines”.

Such companies, he explained, used these purchases to offset their carbon emissions elsewhere by planting trees.

The broadcaster accused them of having “no empathy for, or real understanding of farming or the countryside”.

Appealing to the Welsh public, Mr Noble argued that taking away farmland for tree planting risked limiting Wales’ ability to be food self-sufficient.

He said: “The tragic and awful events unfolding in Ukraine and the world’s extreme financial strain currently impacting on our country should focus the mind and underline priorities, one being self-sufficiency.

"It stands at around 60% in Wales at present I believe, but experts agree, from the farming world and beyond that it could be vastly improved with official support.

"Of course, we cannot produce everything, but a greater percentage is a realistic goal.”

Mr Noble argued that tree planting did have benefits: “Planting trees is regarded and accepted as a way to combat the climate emergency, but ‘right trees, right place, right effect’ is, I feel, an acceptable mantra in that process.

"Planting on productive, rich arable land, surely is not, and, if done, the implication and effect will last generations.”

He pointed at rural communities in the Cothi Valley, Carmarthenshire, where his ‘maternal lineage lived for many generations’,.

“Many of the farming families, in all areas of Wales affected, are rooted in their land, their hallowed ground attached as it is to their soul and their very being. Many likely go back to the very early farmers.

"That heritage deserves recognition and respect, for all they have contributed and will continue to do, feeding a need, in food production, co-operating in climate crisis initiatives, and working with government and agricultural bodies on sensible paths.”

The broadcaster’s intervention comes as a petition, launched by Countryside Alliance Wales and now in its third week, continues to collect signatures.

The online petition calls on Welsh government to "stop purchasing productive farmland to plant trees which threatens our fragile rural communities, heritage, culture and the Welsh language."

It adds: "We are deeply concerned about the number of companies purchasing productive farmland for tree planting to offset their carbon emissions and feel that the Welsh government should further protect our communities from this practice."