Acquisition and Disposal Policy

Acquisition (where we buy land) and disposals (where we sell land) happen for a few reasons. Since our establishment in April 2019, we’ve acquired 7,344 hectares and disposed 5,868 hectares. In March 2026 we managed roughly 639,000 hectares of land.

Read our facts and figures at the bottom of this page for up to date information.

The Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Act 2018 grants FLS the “power to dispose of land.” These fall into three categories:

• surplus assets – the sale of unused or empty buildings, yard space and small pieces of land to fix boundary issues
• portfolio management - the sale of productive land as part of a property portfolio management approach
• forced sales - disposals where we’ve no option to keep the land because of legal limits such as community assets. 

We hold onto income from these sales and reinvest where it improves our work and benefits the public. This can include land acquisition.

The Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Act 2018 lets us get land by agreement and compulsory purchase.

In recent years we have prioritised gaining land for woodland creation. This is set out in our 2021 – 2026 Acquisition Strategy. We now use this land for planting and forest establishment.

We’re also working on forest restocking - where we plant more trees. This is associated with our harvesting work. At the moment we’re not looking to get land for woodland creation or other purposes, unless this would make our work more efficient. For example, if it fixes access issues or land disputes. Our priority is to focus on delivering benefits from the land we already have.

Some national developments are set out in the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4). Various renewable energy projects are approved on public land. This will reduce how much productive land we manage. We’re open to exploring new ways to reduce this impact, including planting projects through acquiring land.

Table 1 provides a summary of the area and value of land bought and sold since 2005 (PDF).

Table 2 provides details, since 2005, of individual acquisitions (PDF). This data has been taken from our own files. Numbers have been rounded.

Table 3 gives details, since 2005, of individual sales (PDF). This data has been taken from our own files. Numbers have been rounded.