Government urged to boost tree planting in climate change fight

Published on Tuesday 29 June 2010 14:46

THE UK needs to plant 20 million trees a year for the next half century to tackle climate change, protect wildlife and provide benefits for people, the Woodland Trust said yesterday.

The charity's president, TV personality Clive Anderson, said the trust wanted to see the UK's tree cover double - bringing the amount of woodlands up to the European average.

That will involve planting 20 million trees annually for the next 50 years - more than treble the current rate of six million trees.

Scotland alone should aim to cover 6,000 hectares with new trees each year, the charity said.

The Woodland Trust said it would be planting two million trees and is launching a new campaign, "more trees, more good", to encourage government, communities, businesses, garden owners and schools to help meet the "huge task".

The campaign came as research for the Trust showed that 72 per cent of those questioned in a poll agreed the UK needs more trees.

Anderson, who has planted trees on his land in Argyll, said: "Research gathered over recent years has highlighted the countless benefits to people, wildlife and the environment that come from planting trees and creating new woodland habitat."

He added: "It's obvious trees are good things.

"On the environmental front there's concern about global warming and high levels of carbon dioxide. Trees take in CO2 and store carbon.

"Tree roots hold river banks together and stop the wind blowing soil away, there are many creatures that live in woods and they provide a sense of well-being and look nice."

And he said the Woodland Trust wanted to encourage everyone from large landowners that wanted to plant trees down to individual people finding plots in their communities where trees could be put in, or schools planting a row in their playing field or playground.

Anderson said in just 12 years, planted trees could turn into woodland, be home to a wide array of wildlife, act as a natural defence against flooding and offer a sustainable supply of eco-friendly fuel.

The woodland charity believes trees are a "highly cost effective" way of tackling major policy challenges facing the new government such as climate change.

When in power, Labour backed the Low Carbon Transition Plan to encourage private funding for woodland creation as part of efforts to create an additional 10,000 hectares of woodland a year for 15 years.

Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats pledged in their manifestos to support an increase in woodlands, with the Lib Dems echoing the Trust's call for a doubling of woodland cover.

The Scottish Government has pledged to increase forest cover in Scotland from 17 per cent to 25 per cent by 2050, and to plant 100 million new trees by 2015.

Scotland is one of the least wooded countries in Europe and the Trust would like to see the area of native woodland doubled to 34 per cent by 2050.

The Woodland Trust's call came as a major forestry conference was under way in Edinburgh.