Tree Planting Target Progress Lags as Government Admits Forestry Gap
Ministers acknowledged that the target to plant 30,000 hectares of trees per year in the United Kingdom — an ambition set as part of the net zero and biodiversity strategies of the previous government and retained in principle by the current administration — had not been achieved by the 2025 milestone date, with actual planting rates across England remaining significantly below the levels required to meet the target even when Scotland and Wales’ contributions were added to the total.
The Forestry Commission’s annual planting data showed that England in particular was lagging, with new woodland creation running at less than half the rate implied by the headline national target. The gap has been attributed to multiple intersecting barriers: insufficient funded applications from landowners willing to convert agricultural land to forestry; planning and consenting delays for large commercial forest operations; the complexity of sourcing and planting large volumes of native species trees at commercially viable cost; and the challenge of identifying appropriate land that does not conflict with food production, biodiversity or landscape character objectives.
The government responded to the acknowledgement of failure with a renewed package of measures, including enhanced grants through the England Woodland Creation Offer, streamlined planning guidance for woodland creation, and new incentives for farmers willing to integrate trees into their agricultural systems through agroforestry approaches. Whether these measures are sufficient to close the gap between current planting rates and the target trajectory will take several growing seasons to assess.
Environmental organisations argued that the tree planting shortfall was symptomatic of the broader challenge of translating environmental commitments into action in a planning and land management system that still places primary emphasis on food production and that does not adequately capture the value of ecosystem services in the economic decisions facing individual landowners.
