Forestry in England: Seeing the wood for the trees Contents

6Protecting forests and woodland

64.In this Report we have discussed the many benefits of forestry, how to incentivise landowners to use their land for forestry and how to get the most out of forests and woodland. None of that is possible if the correct protections to sustain forests and woodland are not in place. In this Chapter we look at protecting ancient woodland and forestry research.

Ancient Woodland

How much of it is disappearing?

65.It is widely accepted that ancient woodland—any wooded area (including its soil) that has been wooded continuously since at least 1600 AD—is irreplaceable. This is why it is important to monitor the loss of ancient woodland. In written evidence the Forestry Commission told us that between 2006 and 2015 in England only 0.02% of ancient woodland (c. 57ha) was lost.109 The Minister reiterated this to us in oral evidence:

In the last 10 years, of about 340,000 hectares of ancient woodland that we have, about 4,300 have been felled. A lot of that has been due to more proactive management of those areas, removing some of the conifers that were just planted and dotted in between the ancient woodland. […] 57 hectares have been given up to other use.110

66.The Government’s figures were queried by our witnesses who raised concerns about the protections in place for ancient woodland. The Woodland Trust, for example, explained that ancient woodland is “disappearing at a frighteningly fast rate” and challenged Forestry Commission records which suggested that not much ancient woodland was disappearing, and identified the cause of this discrepancy:

the Forestry Commission only measures woodland that disappears over a 10-year period and of a certain size. A lot of ancient woodland is now very fragmented, so those losses are not being recorded. We know that, in England alone, there are 380 ancient woods under threat right now.111

67.We are concerned about the rate at which irreplaceable ancient woodland appears to be disappearing. We recommend that Defra, the Forestry Commission and organisations, such as the Woodland Trust, meet by 1 June 2017 to discuss measurement of the loss of ancient woodland and steps that should be taken to prevent, and better record, its loss. Further, Defra should write to us with an update on the outcome of this meeting by 30 June 2017.

National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)

68.The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) “acts as guidance for local planning authorities and decision-takers, both in drawing up plans and making decisions about planning applications”.112

69.We heard from the Woodland Trust that ancient woodland “is not adequately protected by the planning system, and developers use that [planning] loophole and will put infrastructure in particular through ancient woodland”.113 This was supported by a survey the Woodland Trust undertook of 500 planning officers, which found that 85% of those surveyed thought that ancient woodland was at risk due to loopholes in the planning system.114 The Woodland Trust called for changes in the NPPF to classify ancient woodland as “equivalent to built heritage, so to be wholly exceptional if ancient woodland is to be developed”.115

70.A further proposal was for “a register of particularly ancient and veteran trees to be maintained”.116 In addition the Woodland Trust called for “the ancient woodland inventory, which is held by Natural England, to be kept up to date and to be used”.117 This would help to provide clarity on the amount of ancient woodland lost.

71.When we discussed the protections in the NPPF for ancient woodland with the Minister she told us: “The NPPF gives strong protections to ancient woodland”.118

72.Since we concluded taking evidence the Government issued the Housing White Paper, which included a proposal to clarify in the NPPF which national policies provide a strong reason to restrict development and to explicitly mention ancient woodland as such a policy:

when preparing plans, or which indicate that development should be restricted when making decisions on planning applications: it is proposed that these are limited to the policies listed currently at footnote 9 of the National Planning Policy Framework, with the addition of Ancient Woodland and aged or veteran trees; and that these are no longer set out as ‘examples’ but as a clear list.119

73.We support the proposals in the Government’s Housing White Paper to clarify the protections which apply to ancient woodland in the National Planning Policy Framework. We recommend that the Government implement this proposal.

74.We recommend that the Government instruct Natural England and the Forestry Commission to maintain an up-to-date, readily available public register of ancient and veteran trees and an inventory of ancient woodland annually. Further, we recommend that loss of ancient woodland and trees, regardless of its size, should be recorded in the register and inventory.

Research

75.Research is one component of pest and disease management within English forests and woodland, and is a vital tool to sustaining the future of forests and woodland in England. Forest Research told us that tree pests and disease are “not going to go away”, and their concern was “about ensuring that we sustain that level of vigilance going forward”.120

76.Forest Research is a cross-border executive agency of the Forestry Commission which provides forestry research to all nations in Great Britain. This is despite devolution of Forestry Commission functions in Wales to Natural Resources Wales. Scottish Ministers in the Scottish Government have now signalled their intention to complete the full devolution in Scotland of forestry management arrangements, which are currently delivered by Forestry Commission Scotland. Our witnesses, were supportive of Forest Research continuing to operate as a Great Britain (GB)-wide body after this devolution has taken place.121 Confor explained that “We work well through having that overarching organisation [Forest Research]”, especially as there is often only one expert on a particular disease.122 The Forestry Commission summarised the benefit of retaining Forest Research as a GB-wide body:

there will still be a number of important aspects, of which forest science is certainly one, where, whatever constitutional and structural arrangements are put in place, it will be important for forestry, in general, that we continue to collaborate very closely at an island level and do not allow ultimately political boundaries to get in the way of good co-operation.123

Defra also acknowledged the importance of Forest Research continuing to operate at a GB-level, noting that “the expert advice, evidence and research provided by the Forestry Commission on a cross-border basis are all crucial to deliver shared policy goals to protect the whole of the UK from disease”.124

Disseminating forestry research

77.The CLA explained in evidence to us the importance of research and advice guiding foresters on which trees they should plant or advise others to plant (the so-called right tree in the right place):

I get asked quite a lot, “What should I plant?” That is generally in response to the fact that everything seems to be hit by one pest or disease at the moment, so they are worried that what they are going to plant today will still be alive in 10 years’ time, let alone getting to the return stage.125

78.A number of witnesses explained difficulties with research, including from Forest Research, filtering through to foresters on the ground. The CLA explained two causes of this: the time it takes for research to be undertaken and then released given the “emphasis on peer review”; and “getting information from Government agencies”.126 Confor noted that the private forestry sector was keen for improvements to be made to “encourage [research results] to come out more quickly, which would allow us to use the resources we have to do more”.127

79.Conversely, the Royal Forestry Society did not perceive that there was a problem with dissemination of research findings:

One of the great strengths of Forest Research, for example, is its relatively big focus on applied research and its willingness to disseminate that research through organisations like the Royal Forestry Society, for whom dissemination is what we do.128

80.Dissemination of forestry research to foresters is vital to improve resilience to, and management of, tree disease. Many in the sector do not feel able to easily access the outcomes of research. We recommend that the Government explores with the forestry sector how best the private sector can influence the subjects of research and receive updates on research outcomes.

Funding

81.In its written evidence Defra explained that “Research related to tree health, pests and diseases currently absorbs some 30% of the Forestry Commission’s £9.5m annual research budget” and that “between 2012 and 2019 it will have, along with the Forestry Commission and research councils, “invested more than £37m into research that has directly informed tree health policies and management of priority pests”.129 A successful outcome of this funding, cited by Defra, was:

work by UK scientists to identify the country’s first ash tree that shows tolerance to ash dieback, raising the possibility of using selective breeding to develop strains of trees that are tolerant to the disease.130

82.Confor explained that “the funding available for forestry [research] is very modest … [and] needs to be increased”.131 Similarly, the Royal Forestry Society explained that forestry research was “underfunded” and noted that “Forest Research’s core budget for tree improvement has been cut by half in recent years”.132 The Royal Forestry Society went on to explain tree improvement was a much needed research priority and highlighted its low funding: “The amount of money that is invested into that [tree resilience] research at the moment is less than £1 million a year, in an industry that is over £2 billion a year”.133 In the same vein the CLA also advocated greater research into tree resilience.134

83.Forest Research also set out the level of its funding that came from the EU:

A portion of our research funding is from the EU [c. 16%], so that is something that needs to be taken into account. Some of the existing programmes that are supporting the activity I have talked about are time-bounded. Some of our skilled people are on short-term contracts.135

84.Leaving the European Union might result in significant funding for tree pest and disease research being lost. Forestry research in England is already underfunded. Any further reduction in research funding could leave England ill-prepared for future pest and disease outbreaks. The Government must provide certainty by the conclusion of Article 50 negotiations on how it will fill the gap in forestry research funding for organisations such as Forest Research after the UK leaves the European Union, where practicable this could involve greater co-operation with the private sector.