The government has met less than half of its annual tree-planting target in England, MPs have found, putting net zero ambitions at risk.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) this year published what it called “ambitious” nature targets, a requirement under the Environment Act, including the goal of planting 30,000 hectares of woodland by March 2025. A report by the environmental audit committee (EAC) of cross-party MPs has found that this target was unlikely to be met.
While the public sector is responsible for only a quarter of UK woodland, the report found there was not enough direction from the government for the private sector, which faces “unclear strategies and overly bureaucratic schemes”.
Tree planting is crucial for meeting carbon and biodiversity targets, as well as for sustainability in the building industry. The EAC report says UK-sourced timber will help meet the growing demand for low-carbon construction materials.
It adds that a significant expansion of woodland cover is required to compensate for predicted shortfalls in the supply of domestically produced softwood timber and to deliver the UK’s climate and environment goals. At present, the rate of planting is less than half of the government’s target.
The report recommends that the government focus on tree planting for its upcoming and delayed land use framework, which is supposed to be a blueprint for how land is allocated in the UK. The Defra minister Mark Spencer recently hinted that it would be watered down, saying it would not be a “communist” document telling landowners what to do with their estates.
The wrong species being planted could also be a disaster for nature, the report says, recommending that native broadleaves offer ideal habitats for nature, while conifers supply softwood for timber use. The committee found this balance was unlikely to be struck, as the UK Forestry Standard is not routinely monitored and Forestry England lacks the resource to do this.
The committee said it was “disappointed to observe that Forestry England is not currently on track to contribute fully to national tree-planting targets: to date it has only planted 303 hectares against its own target of 2,000 hectares between 2021-2026. Ministers should also commission work to identify opportunities for woodland creation on the wider government estate.”
The EAC chair, Philip Dunne, said: “The government’s target to plant 30,000 hectares of woodland in the UK by March 2025 is welcome, and by and large ministers appreciate the conflicting challenges and demands on woodland. But the committee is concerned that England is currently way off meeting its contribution to that UK-wide goal, and that the rate of planting must increase.”
The Conservative MP added: “At the moment there are simply too many overlapping strategies that aim to cover tree-planting policies in the UK and in England, and there is little evidence of an overall vision for the timber sector. The numerous strategies are disjointed: what is required is an overarching, holistic strategy that sets a long-term vision for how different types of woodland will be used to deliver government’s goals.”
A Defra spokesperson said: “Since the start of this parliament, we have planted or supported the planting of over 10.8m trees. Increasing tree cover is at the heart of our pledge to meet net zero ambitions, which is why we are investing £650m during this parliament in transforming England’s treescapes. We are also continuing to work on delivering our legal target to have 16.5% of England’s total land area covered by trees by 2050.
“Tree-planting rates are now at record levels, but we know there is much more to do and will continue to work with partners in both the private and public sector at pace to increase the nation’s tree cover and boost the forestry sector – supporting domestic timber production, creating new jobs and improving biodiversity across the country.”
