With the latest UK woodland creation statistics published recently, the Institute has been considering how and if we should respond.
- 2025/6 – 7,220 hectares
- 2024/5 – 8,470 hectares
- 2023/4 – 15,040 hectares
We welcome the continued growth in overall woodland cover across the UK. However, we also recognise the concerns about the recent slowdown in woodland creation, particularly in Scotland, where tree planting rates have halved in the last two years. This is significant for the forestry sector.
We want to work constructively with governments and delivery bodies across all four nations to understand and overcome barriers to woodland creation. There are well rehearsed concerns from the sector, and we have written to both Ministers in Wales and Scotland asking for woodland creation and management to be backed by stable long-term funding for planting, maintenance, and restocking, with a balanced mix of productive and native woodland.
The picture in England is more encouraging where levels have been sustained at around 5,000 hectares for three years. However, this new planting has been predominantly unproductive, risking a future in which the low-carbon bioeconomy has no resource.
We are also encouraged by the growing recognition of the importance of urban forestry and trees in communities. We have also asked the devolved nations for the creation of healthier, more resilient communities by embedding urban forestry in planning and placemaking and increasing canopy cover, especially in areas of deprivation.
As the UK’s professional body for forestry and arboriculture, we are well placed to help to address the barriers to woodland creation, whether that is skills, capacity, process, planning, stakeholder engagement or confidence in delivery. We are here to help.
