My wife and I have been toying with the idea for a couple of years now, and have booked onto a handful of courses focused upon planting and managing woodland and coppice. It helps to build a base of knowledge based upon solid fact and financial calculations, rather than do what we did initially and take the odd snippet of info from the net, combined with hear-say and a few books.
As for the purchase of woodland, unless you're in the know or very lucky, woodland coming up in small (<10 acre) plots is very rare indeed. The likes of the large internet-based sellers seem to have the market sewn up for smaller plots of woodlands, and you pay quite a premium for a 'ready-to-go' woodland in my opinion.
Our plan differs somewhat from the usual approach many folks take to buying a woodland; initially we're looking at pastureland which is far more plentiful than planted woodland, approximately 10 acres in size. We'd like a small return from the outset, so partitioning half for rental equestrian purposes (subject to suitability), seems a viable option based upon the demand for livery and grazing around here. The other half is planned for native species which lend themselves well to coppice products or charcoal such as hornbeam, birch, and possibly beech.
It's foolhardy for me to believe I can purchase a woodland just for my own camping purposes, I need a way for the land to pay for itself.