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
· Dedicated staff.
· 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 - 30C. 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 £115m 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
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