Memorandum submitted by Natural England
(TNF 01)
SUMMARY
— The National Forest demonstrates that
a bold and ambitious project can be achieved when it is supported
by sustained public funding and a long term commitment from Government.
A measure of its success is its having achieved the first Defra
national award for sustainable development.
— There has been a transformation of land
use across its 200 square miles, including an increase in woodland
(from 6% in 1991 to 17.5% in 2007) and in other habitats (5% to
5.5% over the same period). It has also created new recreation
and access opportunities (80% of woods planted between 1995 and
2006 have some form of public access, 489km of trails were created
during the same period).
— There are lessons to be learnt from The
National Forest about how to work with communities to achieve
major landscape scale change. We believe that similarly ambitious
projects will be needed elsewhere as we evolve our landscapes
to mitigate against and enable adaptation to climate change. The
role of trees and woods is increasingly recognised as being important
for carbon sequestration, as contributing to shade in urban areas,
acting as windbreaks, reducing soil erosion and slowing down the
run-off of water in catchments. Consequently the Government has
now set out its aspiration, in the Low Carbon Transition Plan,
to create 10,000ha of new woodland a year. Future projects will
need to include those elements that we believe have been crucial
to The National Forest's success:
— A clear and compelling vision;
— Adequate and flexible funding arrangements;
and
— Natural England recognises, however,
that the achievements of The National Forest have been helped
by greater rates of support for woodland creation than exist elsewhere.
We are not aware of a study to compare the effectiveness of the
tender schemes with other relevant funding mechanisms and recommend
that this is a priority in light of the Government's desire to
increase the amount of woodland cover in England.
— There is potential for other organisations
and Government Departments to use The National Forest in future
as a test bed for and exemplar of multi-purpose forestry. The
recent review and the new delivery plan demonstrate their flexibility
and adaptability to new priorities. More links should be made
with the England's Trees Woods and Forests delivery plan as this
provides the vehicle for demonstrating and recording how The National
Forest contributes to this agenda.
The funding schemes, principally the Changing
Landscape Scheme, designed to encourage tree planting and the
creation of wildlife habitats
1. The National Forest's Tender Scheme was
a bespoke scheme that provided an economically attractive level
of incentive, particularly on agricultural land. This secured
the planting up of many of the larger areas of new woodland. That
scheme has now been replaced by the more modestly resourced Changing
Landscape Scheme but it remains competitive compared to alternative
funding schemes.
2. The Changing Landscapes Scheme will remain
necessary for enabling further woodland and habitat creation.
The National Forest has recently developed a GIS-based habitat
connectivity mapping system, to target landscape scale broad habitat
creation and management activity, with a particular focus on climate
change adaptation. The mapping system will be an important tool
that can also be used by partner organisations to help focus biodiversity
grants schemes and assess the connectivity benefits of individual
projects.
3. Looking forward there is scope to achieve
even more effective delivery of habitat improvement. For example,
the West Midlands Biodiversity Partnership has produced a 50 year
biodiversity vision and opportunity map. A similar exercise is
taking place in the East Midlands. These maps will identify, in
detail, the best places for expanding priority BAP habitats, which
will complement The National Forest's mapping work. The next step
is to agree priority areas for working on joint projects that
will achieve further landscape scale changes.
4. Where a project does not fit the Changing
Landscape Scheme criteria, for example because it lacks any tree
and woodland component, the Higher Level agri environment scheme
(HLS) run by Natural England, provides a complementary tool for
improving the environmental infrastructure, and improving recreation
and access opportunities. Some areas, like Charnwood, are already
target areas for HLS and we have collaborated on a successful
special project aimed at restoring the parkland landscape in the
Melbourne area.
The economic, social and environmental benefits
of the first decade of The National Forest Company's activity
ENVIRONMENT
Landscape
5. The UK Government is signed up to the
European Landscape Convention (ELC) which aims to take a holistic
approach to landscape planning, management and engagement; and
to connect people with place. The landscape-led approach of The
National Forest and its wide ranging objectives mirror these ELC
principles. The National Forest has been a pioneer in engaging
with the ELC, being one of the first organisations to produce
an ELC Action Plan and the only organisation, to date, to have
rolled out this delivery "on the ground". Early engagement
with The National Forest also helped shape Natural England's thinking
on how ELC Action Plans could be developed and its exemplar role
is reflected in national ELC guidelines.
Biodiversity
6. The National Forest has played a leading
role in maintaining and enhancing biodiversity value across The
National Forest and it has an excellent record in implementing
the Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) targets. A review of the Forest
Action Plan has begun, in line with the England Biodiversity Strategy
framework, and its habitat creation opportunity mapping work leads
the region and is significant nationally.
7. For example, woodland cover, the key
target for The National Forest, has almost trebled from 6% to
17.5% between 1991 and 2007 (compared to the national figure for
woodland of 9.4% of England in 2007[1]).
1,300ha of other habitats have been created or brought into management,
helping to reverse past habitat and species losses. For example,
82km of new hedgerows have been planted and 91km of existing hedgerows
have been brought back into management. Nine priority species
feature in The National Forest BAP and good progress had been
made against the targets. For example, 17 otter holts were installed
and otters have now returned to the Trent and Mease Rivers. 194
ponds, scrapes and larger water bodies were created or brought
back into management, supporting the Ruddy Darter Dragonfly and
103 new Black Poplar sites were planted. This sustainable landscape
change is being achieved on farmland and through reclamation of
derelict and post-industrial land.
SOCIAL
Growth Points and Green Infrastructure
8. The National Forest is influencing and
working with the Green Infrastructure Strategies and partners
to secure at least 30% greenspace associated with major new developments
that fall within the Forest area. It is a partner in the 6C's
growth point (the cities of Nottingham, Leicester and Derby and
counties of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire), contributing
both to major strategic green infrastructure and outdoor facilities
(major cycle centre, long distance trail) and to the development
of plans and strategies.
9. The provision of good quality accessible
green infrastructure and green space can make a real difference
to the anticipated mortality arising from the expected changes
in climate. For example, there is a proven urban heat island effect
with a linear relationship between increase in temperature and
mortality. Studies of areas with up to 38% tree cover have shown
temperature reductions of 1-3°C. During very hot weather
green spaces, particularly those with tree cover, are cooler and
that cooling effect can extend up to 100m beyond the boundary.
Access
10. Natural England's research shows a significant
correlation between the influence of The National Forest and the
extent to which local communities have access to green spaces.
90% of new and existing woodlands provide public access as a core
element of the funding agreement under the Tender Scheme. As a
result, by 2006 approximately 63% of the Forest's population lived
within 500m of an accessible woodland of 2ha or more in size and
100% lived within 4km of an accessible woodland of at least 20ha.
This compares to national figures of only 10% and 55% respectively.
11. We support The National Forest's intention
to broaden their measurement of public access beyond just woodland,
using the Accessible Natural Greenspace Standard (provides a set
of benchmarks for ensuring access to places near to where people
live and includes all types of green space). This should help
the targeting of priority access improvements, especially towards
more deprived communities.
12. The National Forest has developed a
number of significant visitor attractions, such as the Conkers
and Waterside Centres. This infrastructure development demonstrates
best practice, providing facilities suitable for a wide range
of users.
Community engagement
13. The National Forest's work is making
a significant difference to getting local people actively involved
with the natural environment, enjoying the opportunities on their
doorstep and encouraging people to take care of their health.
For example between 2000 and 2006, 8,600 people have been involved
in The National Forest's Walking the Way to Health and Get Active
schemes.
14. Community engagement in the project
overall has grown annually from 2,400 people in 1995 to 13,400
in 2006. Involvement includes conservation volunteering, health
and environmental education. Lifelong learning for adults is also
increasing and the new annual Walking Festival will attract more
people from nearby cities and towns.
15. The National Forest was chosen to help
regenerate an area of the East Midlands that was suffering from
significant economic decline and is part of a wider set of regeneration
influences on the area. The proportion of the Forest's population
living in deprived areas has declined significantly since 2000,
and it seems likely that the creation of The National Forest has
played a part in this reduction. The proportion of people from
socially excluded groups involved in National Forest activities
has rise to 13% of total participants.
ECONOMIC
Inward investment
16. The National Forest Company has directly
supported the growth of employment in tourism and the woodland
economy and the Forest has benefited from £115 million investment
in regeneration between 1995 and 2006.
Visitor facilities and tourism
17. Investment in the natural environment
can have a positive impact on related industries such as tourism.
Increased and better publicised public transport and visitor facilities,
such as "Conkers" and the Waterside Centre with horse-riding,
walking and cycle routes, have increased numbers for both local
access and recreation as well as tourist visits from further afield
(7.35 million visitors in 2005, up 8.6% from 2003). A new youth
hostel, forest lodges and other overnight accommodation are increasing
visitor capacity and encouraging longer stays: visitor spend is
up by 8.7% to £249 million.
Woodfuel and climate change mitigation
18. The role trees and woodlands play in
climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration is increasingly
recognised, for example in the Government's aspiration to create
10,000ha of new woodland a year in the Low Carbon Transition Plan
and the Read Report "Combating Climate Change—a
role for UK Forests"
19. The National Forest's goal of increasing
woodland cover from a below average total of 6% to around 33%
(they have already achieve 18% and the current yearly target of
200-250ha will achieve an annual increase of c. 0.5%) demonstrate
one means by which a substantial increase in woodland can be achieved.
The project has also secured the engagement and commitment of
the local population, and contributed to the creation of new habitats
and new recreation opportunities, which suggest that aspects of
the model are worth considering if the scale of increased woodland
creation set out in the Government's Low Carbon Transition Plan
is to be achieved.
20. The National Forest, working with the
Forestry Commission, is promoting the demand for wood-fuel and
the installation of wood-fuelled boilers. This will make an important
contribution to the Government's Woodfuel Strategy, as an alternative
source of carbon-light renewable energy. It is estimated that
the potential wood-fuel resource within the Forest will be enough
to supply up to 75 100Kw systems by 2032.
January 2010
1 Countryside Survey: England results from 2007 Back
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