Woodland Creation and Expansion – Programme 6

Increasing woodland cover is a priority for all three nations of Great Britain. There are ambitious woodland creation and tree planting targets in each. This provides opportunity to restore degraded landscapes while tackling the climate and biodiversity crises.

This core Programme of research includes a number of projects which aim to understand more about new woodlands: where to locate them, how they develop, what benefits they might provide over time, and how this can be achieved. The research in this Programme aims to untangle the complex interactions between location, extent and species, and discover which combinations can reliably confer multiple benefits such as carbon capture and improved biodiversity. The research will co-produce products and tools which support land managers, stakeholders and policy makers to increase engagement with woodland creation activities.