We use some essential cookies to make this website work.
We’d like to set additional cookies to understand how you use forestresearch.gov.uk, remember your settings and improve our services.
We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.
Woods for People
The Woods for People project has created a UK-wide provisional inventory of accessible woodland.
At present, it does not include woodlands where the only access is on public rights of way. For Scotland, the Land Reform Act gives a right of responsible access to almost all land, but the dataset only includes woods that encourage access. Table 6.9 shows the proportions of woodland with public access (permissive) as identified by the Woods for People database.
The changes between versions of the dataset (2004 to 2014) are the result of several factors, including the development of the database between versions as areas are updated by landowners; one significant change was a reduction in England and Wales as a result of a fall in the amount of Walkers Welcome data. More recently, the exclusion of areas where access is constrained in England has led to a decrease in accessible woodland in 2011.
Around one half (50%) of the UK woodland area was identified as being publicly accessible in 2014 (Table 6.9).
Table 6.9 Woods for People: Publicly accessible woodland
Year | England | Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland | UK |
per cent of all woodland area1 | |||||
20042 | 37 | 49 | 57 | 66 | 49 |
2006 | 32 | 39 | 58 | 64 | 46 |
2007 | 34 | 40 | 58 | 64 | 47 |
2008 | 34 | 40 | 58 | 64 | 48 |
2009 | 37 | 42 | 59 | 64 | 49 |
2010 | 39 | 42 | 59 | 64 | 50 |
2011 | 35 | 42 | 58 | 65 | 48 |
2012 | 36 | 43 | 58 | 66 | 49 |
2013 | 38 | 43 | 58 | 66 | 50 |
2014 | 38 | 43 | 59 | 66 | 50 |
Source: Woods for People (Woodland Trust)
Notes:
1. The total woodland area estimated in 2004 for the Woods for People project, not updated for later reports. This differs from the area shown elsewhere in Forestry Statistics for 2004 to 2014.
2. The 2004 data are from version 1 of the Woods for People project, re-analysed in September 2007 to count only woodland areas. The higher results originally presented in the 2004 Woodland Trust Spaces for People report were based in part on total land areas, rather than woodland areas.
3. Data for 2006 to 2014 are from versions 3 to 11 of the Woods for People dataset, based on woodland areas.
These figures are outside the scope of National Statistics. For further information see the Sources chapter.
Sources chapter: Recreation
Cookies are files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website.
We use cookies to store information about how you use the dwi.gov.uk website, such as the pages you visit.
Find out more about cookies on forestresearch.gov.uk
We use 3 types of cookie. You can choose which cookies you're happy for us to use.
These essential cookies do things like remember your progress through a form. They always need to be on.
We use Google Analytics to measure how you use the website so we can improve it based on user needs. Google Analytics sets cookies that store anonymised information about: how you got to the site the pages you visit on forestresearch.gov.uk and how long you spend on each page what you click on while you're visiting the site
Some forestresearch.gov.uk pages may contain content from other sites, like YouTube or Flickr, which may set their own cookies. These sites are sometimes called ‘third party’ services. This tells us how many people are seeing the content and whether it’s useful.