Tree Planting
(asked on 3rd November 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, what steps he is taking to ensure that local authorities are (a) set and (b) reach tree planting targets.
Answered by
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We recognise the importance of local authorities (LAs) in achieving the Government's tree planting targets and delivering the vision set out in the England Trees Action Plan (ETAP).
LAs are increasingly setting their own tree planting targets to support their own net zero ambitions. A recent Forestry Commission study of 82 top tier LAs revealed that 70% (57 LAs) have included 'planting trees and woodlands' as part of their net zero strategies.
Defra supports LAs' tree planting activity through several of the Nature for Climate Fund Grant schemes, such as the England Woodland Creation Offer, the Local Authorities Treescape Fund and the Urban Tree Challenge Fund (UTCF). Whilst the latest round of applications for UTCF closed in July, over the next two years this fund will provide up to £6 million for planting around 44,000 large trees in towns and cities, plus necessary maintenance payments. We are also supporting the creation of two new Woodland Creation Partnerships in Cornwall and Northumberland, and two new Community Forests in Plymouth and South Devon and in the North East, working closely with the relevant LAs in those areas
To further support LAs that may have less capacity and capability to develop their own targets, we have committed in the ETAP to produce guidance for LAs to develop their own local tree and woodland strategies.
Finally, LAs are also expected to play a central part in the delivery of the new Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs), a new system of spatial strategies for nature, to be delivered through the Environment Bill, which will cover the whole of England. We anticipate that LNRSs will become a key mechanism through which appropriate land for woodland creation is identified at a local level which in turn will support the delivery of national tree planting targets.