NFI Woodland Ecological Condition

There is a growing requirement across government, non-governmental organisations and the private sector for better evidence concerning the ecological condition of British woodlands. British woodlands are dynamic entities and their ecological condition changes in response to factors such as changing woodland management, general land use practices and climate change. Evidence of the current state of woodland ecological condition and how it changes over time is required to inform the targeting of resources and woodland management in support of biodiversity and ecological resilience. The following provides a statistical assessment of 15 indicators of woodland ecological condition and a further classification of woodland habitat into its condition status of favourable, intermediate and unfavourable.

The National Forest Inventory (NFI) provides a record of the size, distribution and information on other key attributes of forests and woodlands in Great Britain. The NFI is composed of two elements: an earth observation programme to identify the location and extent of woodlands and a fieldwork programme to assess woodland composition.

To assess woodland ecological condition in Britain, the NFI recorded ecological data as part of the fieldwork programme (NFI survey cycle 2010-2015) and that was used to assess 15 woodland ecological condition indicators (WEC indicators) at each woodland stand surveyed. In turn, the data for the 15 WEC indicators were compared to a series of 15 benchmarks representative of a woodland stand of ancient semi-natural woodland (ASNW) in good condition, enabling a score of condition to be calculated. This score was used to classify stands according to their ecological condition: favourable, intermediate or unfavourable. These results can be collated and reported upon for any geographic area in Britain (minimum size 30,000 ha) and in this series of reports and supporting data statistics, scores and classes are presented by native woodland type and priority habitat type, broken down by country and region in Britain. A series of reports and supporting data have been produced to describe the methodology used, the statistical results and the classification results.

Diagram explaining publications For a brief summary of the study please refer to the report NFI woodland ecological condition in Great Britain: executive summary.

For more information about the methodology used to conduct this study please refer to NFI woodland ecological condition in Great Britain: methodology report.

For more information about the statistical results for other countries please refer to NFI woodland ecological condition in [country]: statistics.

For more information about the classification of woodland to describe ecological condition please refer to the report NFI woodland ecological condition in Great Britain: classification results.

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NFI Woodland Ecological Condition Scoring Methodology

NFI Woodland Ecological Condition indicator scores by woodland nativeness

NFI Woodland Ecological Condition indicator scores by woodland habitat

Tree age statistics by woodland nativeness

Grazing damage statistics by woodland nativeness

Invasives statistics by woodland nativeness

Vegetation statistics by woodland habitat

Vertical structure statistics by woodland habitat

Veteran tree statistics by woodland habitat

Deadwood statistics by woodland habitat

Woodland size statistics by woodland habitat

Total score statistics by woodland habitat

NFI Woodland Ecological Condition - Executive Summary

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NFI Woodland Ecological Condition - Statistics Wales

Number of native species statistics by woodland nativeness

Native occupancy statistics by woodland nativeness

Open space statistics by woodland nativeness

Land cover statistics by woodland nativeness

Regen component group statistics by woodland nativeness

Regen population statistics by woodland nativeness

Pest and disease statistics by woodland nativeness

Vegetation statistics by woodland nativeness

Vertical structure statistics by woodland nativeness

Veteran tree statistics by woodland nativeness

Deadwood statistics by woodland nativeness

Woodland size statistics by woodland nativeness

Total score statistics by woodland nativeness

Tree age statistics by woodland habitat

Grazing damage statistics by woodland habitat

Invasives statistics by woodland habitat

Number of native species statistics by woodland habitat

Native occupancy statistics by woodland habitat

Open space statistics by woodland habitat

Land cover statistics by woodland habitat

Regen component group statistics by woodland habitat

Regen population statistics by woodland habitat

Pest and disease statistics by woodland habitat