Woodland Grant Scheme 3: Forestry Incentive Areas in Great Britain, 1994-2012

Great Britain's Woodland Grant Scheme 3 (WGS3) provided financial incentives for creating and managing woodlands. The Forestry Commission (now Scottish Forestry) administered the scheme, which ran from September 1994 until it closed for new applications in Scotland in February 2003. The dataset, managed by the Government Digital Service, includes regular updates to scheme boundaries and grant-aided areas until the end of 2012.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the spatial distribution of grant-aided woodlands based on described scheme boundaries.
• Studying the evolution of forestry policy and incentive structures over the 1994-2003 active period.
• Assessing environmental protection standards in land management based on the described qualification guidelines.
• Tracking changes in supported woodland areas based on the described regular boundary updates until 2012.

Strengths

• Describes a specific, closed government scheme with a clear operational timeframe from 1994 to 2003.
• Includes regular updates to geographic boundaries for over 15 years, until the end of 2012.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service, originating from the Forestry Commission (now Scottish Forestry).

Collection Method

Administrative records from a grant scheme, with boundaries updated regularly.

Time Range

Scheme active from September 1994 to February 2003; data updates continued until end of 2012.

Freshness

No further changes were made after 2012; the dataset is historical.

Geography

Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales).