{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.021860701576004067, 'fraction_numerical': 0.01728520589730554, 'mean_word_length': 5.56, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Forest education and research in the United Kingdom

The total area of woodland in Great Britain (GB) is 2.7 m hectares of which one‐third is State‐owned and two‐thirds private; total annual wood production approximates 12 m cubic meters, while total imports of forest products approximate 48 m cubic meters. Public and government interest in forests and woodlands is significant and growing. However, support for four long‐established forestry educational institutions is diminishing accompanied by a decline in the number of applicants for university and college places in forestry courses (325 in 1996 to 156 in 2003). At the same time, there is an increase in the number of institutions (44 in 2004) offering forestry‐related subjects at postgraduate, undergraduate and technical levels although many of these are minor components within wider courses of anthropology, biology, conservation, development studies, environmental studies, geography and zoology. While these are laudable, there is concern within the forestry profession at the potential decline in education for integrated resource management. Partly to fill this gap, a number of organizations offer short, intensive, professional courses while many industrial companies provide in‐service training. In the UK at least 20 government and non‐government organizations finance over 520 forestry‐related research projects each year. The research is conducted by a large number of government institutions, conservation bodies and universities. The total financial support over the last five years has approximated £ 23 m but the low priority given to forestry in Framework Programme 6 of the EU is likely to lead to a decline in funding unless future EU Framework Programmes recognize the importance of forestry. Recent changes in priorities have resulted in more research on biodiversity, conservation, short rotation coppice and climate change together with wood utilization and overall sustainability.