As a fundamental part of our natural environment, woods and trees are crucial to sustaining life on our planet. They generate oxygen, store carbon, provide a renewable resource of timber and energy, offer green spaces for healthy relaxation in cities and towns as well as the countryside, and play host to a spectacular variety of wildlife as well as visually enhancing the environment and inspiring our minds and souls. Our quality of life and our physical and mental health is enriched by living and working close to woods and trees.

The protection, enhancement and expansion of native woodland, the focus of the work of the Woodland Trust, can therefore form part of a strategy to deliver sustainable development to benefit society as a whole and as part of a wider conservation strategy to create robust landscapes capable of responding to climate change.

This document sets out under six broad headings the Woodland Trust’s aspirations for action principally by governments and their agencies through legislation, policy, practice and incentives. We believe these are needed to deliver the vision set out in our long term strategic plan, Keeping Woodland Alive which describes our four outcomes for woodland . Although this document is intended for opinion formers, policy specialists and decision makers, we also recognise that we have a role to play in delivering these actions in collaboration with others.

Within the next five years (unless otherwise stated) the Woodland Trust would like to see:

1. Progress on climate change

An urgent response to mitigate the worst effects of climate change, the most serious threat to our native woodland, through:

• Getting on track to deliver at least a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 by achieving a 20% reduction from 1990 levels by 2010.
• Setting out a strategic approach to reducing emissions sector by sector and provide a set of incentives to deliver reductions.
• Proper recognition of the true environmental costs of air transport particularly through the inclusion of aviation within the new EU emissions trading scheme.
• Greater incentives to use renewable energy which achieve genuine reductions in carbon dioxide emissions and which do not significantly damage the natural heritage.
• The introduction of a renewable heat obligation which will help to encourage increased use of locally sourced wood from sustainable sources.

2. Enhancement of the wider landscape

Continuing landscape scale agricultural reforms to achieve an overall reduction in the intensity of land use and help create a more sympathetic landscape particularly so that wildlife can adapt in the face of climate change through;

• Public funds supporting a series of partnerships across differing land owning interests to deliver action for sympathetic land management and creating new wildlife friendly landscapes at a visionary scale.
• Increased redirection of CAP funds from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2 via the new Rural Development Regulation (EARDF) 2007-2013 into Rural Development Plans to support woodland creation and environmentally benign management of semi-natural habitats as well mitigating environmental impacts in areas of more intensive land management such as arable areas.
• Tighter controls on diffuse pollution both water and airborne.
• Cross compliance reviews establishing minimum environmental standards for the stewardship of trees and wooded land on farms and to make them eligible for the Single Payment Scheme.
• Stronger promotion of landscape character as a key concept in woodland protection and expansion.

Doubling of native woodland cover in the UK in 50 years through:

• Establishment of 50,000 hectares of new native woodland as a first step within the next five years particularly targeted in areas of high concentrations of ancient woods and other semi-natural habitats to protect, buffer and extend them, and close to where people live where no accessible woodland exists.
• Woodland creation having a greater priority within forestry policy in particular and land use policy in general.

3. Greater woodland biodiversity

Substantially improved protection for all ancient woodland and ancient trees through:

• Overarching legislation or other mechanisms to protect ancient woodland absolutely from losses to development.

• Every level of the planning system to have robust protection for ancient trees and woodland from development.

• The Forestry Commission in England, Scotland and Wales and the Forest Service in Northern Ireland becoming a statutory consultee on planning applications affecting ancient woodland.

• Reform of Tree Preservation Order legislation to better allow for protection of ancient and veteran trees.

• Updated ancient woodland and ancient tree inventories.

• Ancient woodland being explicitly placed at the heart of forest policy and strategy and conservation action focused on concentrations of ancient woodland.

Woodland management focused on and incentivised towards improving biodiversity through:

• All planted ancient woodland sites in state forest ownership in a process of restoration within five years and in private ownership within 10 years (of the 220,000 hectares of PAWS in GB, 40% is in State forest ownership and 60% in private ownership).

• Commitments from the national forest estate to restore valuable afforested semi-natural habitats.

• An increase in the area of woodland under the stewardship of the agri-environment schemes throughout the UK.

• Ensuring that the full requirements of the Habitats Directive such as establishing buffer zones are effectively transposed into the UK.

• A single woodland Habitat Action Plan with new ambitious woodland restoration and creation targets resulting from the review of the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.

4. More resources

Realistic budgets to support the promotion of sustainable forest management and the benefits that this yields to society from both current and new sources through:

• Sustained, enhanced and targeted funding for the Forestry Commission’s woodland management and creation grants based on the principle of public money providing public benefits.
• Forestry and agri-environment grants integrated into a single land management funding package which rewards woodland owners and other land managers equitably.
• Decoupling Forestry Commission expenditure from any surpluses or deficits on timber sales and providing the Commission with adequate and consistent public funding to support the full range of environmental and social benefits of forestry.
• Health, leisure and other public funding streams within other government departments to explicitly recognise and support wider benefits of woodland to society.
• Increased share of Lottery funding for the environment in face of competing demands and other UK priorities.
• Increased resources into research on climate change impacts on woodland and adaptive responses to conserve woodland.

5. People closer to woodland

More opportunities for people to access and enjoy the health-giving benefits of woodland both close to home and throughout the country through:

• Ensuring that 30% of the UK’s population should have a 2ha wood within 500 m of their home and 80% have a 20ha wood within 4km as part of a mosaic of accessible natural green space.
• Encouraging owners to open existing woods to public access and creating new accessible woods for people where needed.

Woodland forming the basis of a planned programme of discovery and inspiration for children through:

• Ensuring every child is able to experience woodland at first hand as part of their formal education at least annually.

6. Woods as an exemplar for sustainable land management

Fuller recognition of the role woodland can play in delivering public policy priorities of sustainability and quality of life through:

• 75% of the UK’s woodland voluntarily certified to UK Woodland Assurance Scheme standards by 2010.
• Woodland playing an important role in delivering the Water Framework Directive.
• New and existing woodland being included by planners as a key element of green infrastructure.
• Greater recognition of the role of wood and wood products as a renewable resource by government and businesses.

The UK’s public forest estates which should be an exemplar for the principles of sustainable development and delivery of public policy priorities, demonstrated through:

• Stronger statements of policy on the role of the public forest estate in delivering wider public policy priorities such as health, education biodiversity, landscape quality, community cohesion and social inclusion, public access, sustainable tourism and renewables.
• Any disposals of woodland from the public forest estates passing through an exacting public benefit test first.

Footnotes

(i) No further loss of ancient woodland, improved woodland biodiversity, an increase in the area of native woodland and greater public understanding and enjoyment of woodland.

(ii) The Woodland Trust’s Woodland Access Standard as described in Space for People 2004 aspires to everyone having a 2ha wood within 500m of their home and a 20ha wood within 4km of their home. Currently the figures are 10% and 60% of the population respectively.

(iii) Woodland In the ownership of the Forestry Commission, Northern Ireland Forest Service, Countryside Council for Wales, English Nature and Scottish Natural Heritage.