Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 4 April (HL7141) and 19 September (HL1726), what further progress has been made in achieving their commitment of planting 11 million trees by 2020; and what is the estimated number of trees to be felled over the same period.

A total of 1.35 million trees have been planted this Parliament, up to the end of September 2016, creating 1,009 hectares of new woodland. The next update, to the end of December 2016, will be published on 15 February 2017. The Woodland Carbon Fund opened on 10 November 2016 which, alone, could result in the planting of up to 11 million trees. On 8 December 2016 the Forestry Commission published guidance for Countryside Stewardship Woodland Creation Grant 2017, which opens for applications on 3 January 2017. We are also consulting on whether to raise the Environmental Impact Assessment threshold for afforestation projects to help further accelerate tree planting. No estimate has been made of the number of trees felled over the same period or of the number of trees to be felled during the remainder of this Parliament.