23-06-2025
Trees underpin environmental leadership
Image: The Woodland Trust
Woods and trees are woven into our identities and sense of place as individuals and communities across the four nations of the UK. The outcry over the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree and, more recently, the Whitewebbs Oak amply demonstrate this and have seen perhaps the greatest public demonstration of this relationship with trees since the protests against the sell-off of the Public Forest Estate under the coalition government.
At the time of writing, all those with an interest in the environment keenly awaited the publication of the Westminster government's Environmental Improvement Plan, and at the end of the year we will also see the Cop30 summit in the Amazon, where there will be a strong focus on forests both globally and domestically. For the UK government to speak with authority on the world stage about such matters needs a strong domestic story. This was the central theme of a very-well-attended Westminster reception hosted by the Woodland Trust earlier this year, bringing together parliamentarians, business leaders and members of the Woodland Trust Youth Council. The actions required to effectively protect, restore and expand our domestic woodland cover must be underpinned by
a robust evidence base.
It is against this backdrop that the Woodland Trust has recently published the State of the UK's Woods and Trees report, funded with the support of players of the People's Postcode Lottery. The previous version, published in 2021, generated a good deal of interest and debate and we anticipate the same for the 2025 version.
It was the focus of a recent meeting of the all-party parliamentary group for woods and trees, and we expect it will continue to generate debate over the coming months.
State of the UK's Woods and Trees 2025 sets out how woods and trees need our help to build ecological resilience to thrive for wildlife and people. What are its key findings? The climate is changing with devastating consequences, and healthy woodlands are a key part of UK plans to tackle climate change. Woods and trees help us to adapt and reduce the impact of a changing climate by providing a wide range of social benefits and environmental services. Indeed, UK forests store one billion tonnes of carbon, and each year, remove approximately 18.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is almost 5 per cent of the UK's annual carbon emissions.
Despite tree cover rising to 13.5 per cent, woodland biodiversity continues to decline. The woodland bird index was 37 per cent lower in 2022 than in 1970 and has decreased by 15 per cent in the last five years. This is largely due to our woodlands not being in good enough ecological condition.
Trees and woods also improve our health and wellbeing. However, these benefits are not equally distributed. Following on from our groundbreaking Tree Equity mapping, new research also indicates that lower-income areas not only have less tree cover, but existing woods in these areas contain fewer biodiversity traits and are not as effective at boosting local people's wellbeing. The report contains neighbourhood averages for each local authority area. The UK neighbourhood average for urban canopy cover is 19.3 per cent, but this masks significant differences. For example, there are neighbourhoods in Hartlepool with canopy cover of 2 per cent, compared with Hampstead where some neighbourhoods are over 40 per cent. The essential benefits of urban trees are not equitably distributed among populations
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in the UK. This report sought to find out why we continue to ignore the deep interdependencies between trees, wildlife, climate and people and why we cannot afford to keep doing so. We found that the UK continues to miss woodland creation targets. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) published the seventh carbon budgetearlier this year calling for woodland creation to be nearly doubled by 2030.
Yet just 45 per cent of targets have been met in the UK in the last four years, which means we've missed out on an additional 8.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2050. We also found that woodlands face an escalating and interacting suite of threats, yet the scale and urgency of action is lacking. For instance, the UK currently hosts 121 introduced pests of native trees. An estimated £919.9m is spent each year in the UK on managing only six pests. The impact of climate change is exacerbating these effects.
What can we do to turn things around? The latest Bunce survey published in 2024, led by the Woodland Trust and UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), gives an unparalleled 50-year insight into changes in Britain's woodlands. This revealed a decline in ecological complexity and biodiversity due to a lack of management, therefore making them less resilient. We desperately need sensitive management of UK woodlands to improve their ecological condition and unlock their ability to adapt to climate change. Ecological restoration of woodland habitats through sensitive management not only supports nature recovery but also supports a well-functioning carbon cycle that provides a stable, long-term store of carbon.
Only with increased levels of sensitive management can woods and trees continue to provide benefits for people and wildlife. We drastically need to improve the condition of our woodland – if we are to tackle biodiversity loss, mitigate climate change and secure the public health benefits of trees. Governments across the UK need to invest in the management of our woodlands, so that trees of all ages can thrive, along with the wildlife that call them home. It is also vital that the government starts hitting its tree-planting targets, so that there is time to grow the veteran trees of the future.
People care deeply about the natural world around them and know how much we all benefit from healthy woods and trees. We must prioritise protecting, restoring and planting new woodlands, for the health of our communities and our planet.
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