The difficulties of the past year and a half have
thrown into sharp relief the value of woodland and other green spaces in
helping us to maintain our physical and mental wellbeing.
A report published by the Woodland Trust highlights
the perilous state of much of the country’s woodland.
Amongst its findings are that only 7% of the UK’s
natural woodland in is a healthy condition and despite the amount of woodland
cover slowly increasing, there is less wildlife to be found there.
A copy The State of the UK’s Woods and Trees report
[1] has been sent to the government and the campaign group will us it to inform
their future activities.
In a press statement chief executive of the Woodland
Trust Darren Moorcroft said “The
challenges UK woods and trees face are not unsurmountable. But overcoming them
will take urgent action from government and continuing work from charities like
us”.
Earlier this week the government unveiled its
England Trees Action Plan [2], included in which is an ‘aim’ to achieve 12%
woodland cover by ‘mid-century’. The Plan also includes aims to increase tree
planting across the UK to 30,0000 hectares a year and to spend £500 million of
the £640million Nature for Climate fund on woodlands in England by 2025.
Writing in the forward to the plan Secretary of
State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs George Eustice says the
government’s pledge is to not only to stem the tide of nature loss,
but to turn it around – to leave the environment in a better state than we
found it. The England Trees Action Plan is central to this. It sets out our
long-term plan for the whole treescape - trees, woodlands and forests. It
includes our vision for trees in 2050 and the economic, environmental, and
social benefits that we will realise through our new trees and woodlands”.
Environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth
have criticised the plan as “inadequate” and “frankly not worth the paper its
written on”. They went on to describe the proposal to hold a public
consultation on setting a binding target for increasing woodland cover next
year as a “ridiculous” delay “given the urgency of the nature and climate
emergencies”. Friends of the Earth have also criticised the plan for leaving
the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales to do much of the “heavy
lifting” when it comes to restoring woodland cover.
The need to protect woodland in the UK and
elsewhere is emphasised by the findings of a research project by the University
of Wisconsin-Madison published in the Journal Science [3].
Scientists found that Earth’s vegetation is
changing at a faster rate than at any other time in the past 18,000 years and
human actions may be to blame. Intensive land use for agriculture and climate
change have been cited as probable causes all of which began as humans became
the dominant species some 4000 years ago.
In the face of a climate crisis that has the
potential to be massively destructive there is a need for governments to act
quickly and decisively. A tepid plan for a limited increase for tree cover in
England with no firm target or timetable for acting, just a lot of Westminster
waffle about working with stakeholders and holding yet another consultation
from the UK government shows neither quality.
Until the words stop and the action starts and
there is a clear benchmark for measuring how effective any policy has been
delivered change and recovery for our woodlands looks sadly unlikely.
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