Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 1
1
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 14
We welcome the UK Government’s ambition to plant 30,000 hectares of new woodland a year...
Recommendation
We welcome the UK Government’s ambition to plant 30,000 hectares of new woodland a year by 2025 in the UK. However, the Government has not set a clear target for England’s contribution, which will likely require England to treble its planting rate by May 2024. Setting annual targets for tree planting in England would provide certainty for the sectors whilst improving transparency and accountability. We recommend that, by May 2022, the UK Government should set clear, annual targets for England’s contribution to reaching the overall UK goal for planting of 30,000 hectares of trees a year by 2024.
Government Response Summary
The government outlines existing plans to increase planting rates in England with a trajectory towards 7,500 hectares per year by 2025, but stops short of setting concrete annual targets as requested in the recommendation.
Paragraph Reference:
14
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
The Nature for Climate Fund Tree Programme is designed to put tree-planting in England on the trajectory required for the UK to meet government’s net zero target. It aims to increase annual tree-planting rates to 30,000 hectares per year across the UK, with England planting at least 7,500 hectares per year by March 2025, planting over 29k hectares of new woodland between 2020 and 2025 and sequestering 8.75 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2050. The delivery profile of the Nature for Climate Fund Tree Programme is back loaded to allow for new grants to become embedded and the skilled workforce and sapling supply needed for increased tree planting to start building up. A number of new grants and partnerships were launched in 2021 – these will deliver an increased rate of new tree planting each year as awareness of the offers is increased and as tree planting schemes in the pipeline translate to trees in the ground. The planned delivery profile to increase planting rates is outlined below: • 21/22: 2,500 hectares of planting across England • 22/23: 5,500 ha • 23/24: 6,500 ha • 24/25: 7,500 ha For this ambition to be met Defra and its delivery partners will need to continue to take action to support strong uptake of the new tree planting offers already launched through the Nature for Climate Fund, as well as delivering several new initiatives, including exploring support for planting on vacant and derelict land, and increasing levels of private funding for woodland creation. This trajectory will then lead towards the longer-term Environment Act target we are currently consulting on, supported by a relevant interim target. Annual Official Statistics detailing woodland creation rates, including government funded woodland creation, are published in June each year with interim statistics published on a quarterly basis.