Tree Planting
(asked on 13th September 2021) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many trees his Department has planted since December 2019.
Answered by
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Forestry is a devolved matter and so this answer relates only to government supported tree planting in England.
The latest statistics for new planting supported by central government in England can be found in the Forestry Commission Key Performance Indicators: Report for 2020-21 on the gov.uk website. These most recent published provisional statistics are shown below:
Year (ending 31 March) | Government supported new planting of trees in England (hectares) | Estimated number of trees |
2019-20 | 1,956 | 3,281,0001,2 |
2020-21 | 1,892 | 3,860,0001,2,3 |
2021-22 quarter 1 partial interim report | 469 | 926,000 |
Source: Forestry Commission.
1. Includes trees in areas counting as woodland, and some tree cover outside woodland.
2. The density of tree planting, in terms of numbers of trees planted per hectare of land, varies between planting schemes
3. Tree numbers are approximate and to the nearest 1,000 trees. Figures may not sum due to rounding
These statistics include new planting supported by Government via the Rural Development Programme for England (Countryside Stewardship and the former English Woodland Creation Grant), the Woodland Carbon Fund, the High Speed 2 Woodland Fund, Forestry England, Natural England, the Environment Agency, the National Forest Company, in the Northern Forest, and by the Community Forests.
Planting rates in 2020/21 were impacted by Covid-19. The England Tree Action Plan published in May 2021 stated our aim to at least treble tree planting rates in England by end of this Parliament.