Environmental Audit CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by the Woodland Trust
1. Background
1.1 The Woodland Trust is the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity championing native woods and trees. It has more than 500,000 members and supporters and its three key aims are: i) to enable the creation of more native woods and places rich in trees ii) to protect native woods, trees and their wildlife for the future iii) to inspire everyone to enjoy and value woods and trees. Established in 1972, the Woodland Trust now has over 1,200 sites in its care covering approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres). Access to all Woodland Trust sites is free.
1.2 We warmly welcome this important inquiry and the opportunity to submit evidence.
1.3 Our evidence focuses on one key point of the brief:
How the ONS work might be further expanded and adjusted to reflect well being research and the metrics being developed elsewhere.
2. The need for an Access Indicator
2.1 One of the more prominent concerns in the initial public survey carried out by ONS was around the quality of, and access to, the local environment but this has not featured in the final suite of indicators—largely, we understand, because of concerns around data availability. There is instead an indicator on the number of times people have accessed the natural environment. Whilst welcome, this does not address the quality of people’s everyday surroundings.
2.2 We believe that the Woods for People dataset could fulfil this role.
2.3 This is a project between Woodland Trust, Forestry Commission and Environment and Heritage Service (NI). It involves the maintenance of an inventory of accessible woodland across the UK. The Woodland Trust’s “Space for People” project draws on this, analysing the extent of access across the UK at present and has developed targets for accessible woodland close to where people live through the Woodland Access Standard.
2.4 The data has been collected and updated annually since 2002 so we believe it to be accurate. Linkage with the popular VisitWoods project also means that there is additional information from members of the public which is improving and refining the data. The Woodland Access Standard was adopted by the Forestry Commission as a key corporate indicator so is already in use by statutory agencies. It has also been embraced in a number of Local Development Frameworks/Green Infrastructure Strategies across the country.
3. The Policy Case
3.1 The growing body of evidence pointing to the range of well-being benefits from accessible green space reinforces the case that such a measure should be included.
3.2 Benefits from woodland close to where people live include:
Encouraging people to take exercise.
Helping reduce the mental stresses of modern society.
Improving air quality.
Reducing respiratory diseases.
3.3 This is reinforced by the Public Health White Paper, Healthy Lives, Healthy People, which states (p40) that: “Access to green spaces is associated with better mental and physical health across socio-economic groups”.
3.4 The Natural Environment White Paper, The Natural Choice: securing the value of nature (HM Government, July 2011, paras 4.5–4.13) notes the evidence which shows that: “A good-quality environment is associated with a decrease in problems such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol. It is also linked with better mental health, reduced stress and more physical activity. If every household in England were provided with access to quality green space, an estimated £2.1 billion in healthcare costs could be saved. On the other hand, a poor local natural environment can damage people’s health and contribute to health inequalities. For example, the social costs of the impacts of air pollution are estimated at £16 billion per year in the UK”.
3.5 We believe that, given such evidence, the available dataset we have highlighted, and the public response to the original survey, the Government ought to be prioritising the measurement of access and using the Woods for People dataset to inform a well-being indicator.
14 June 2013