A new charter – and a new chance – for trees in the UK

 

 

I wanted to write something about the launch of the tree charter on 6 November, which hasn’t been widely covered in the media, but I did find this great piece by Boudicca Fox-Leonard (what a name!) in the Telegraph that seems to cover most of what I wanted to say, which either means I’m not nearly as original as I thought I was, or I’m in exalted company in thinking along the same lines as Ms Fox-Leonard!

Her piece begins with a wonderful sentence: ‘In slides the shovel, out comes a clod of earth; a delicate sapling is dropped into the neat hole and soil repacked around it.’ She mentions the fact that our percentage of tree cover in the UK is far below the European average. Across the UK it stands at around 13 per cent and in England it is just 10 per cent. Compare this to France (36.76%), Spain (36.7%), Italy (35%) and Germany (32%). Even allowing for the fact that Britain is an island with a high population density, the comparison is enormously unfavourable, yet 2016 was the worst year for planting on record. She also points out that the government pledged to plant 11 million trees by 2020 and that this pledge is unlikely to be kept. In other words, not enough is being done to improve the situation.

Why do I think it is important that more trees are planted? I have two main answers to that question – the first is personal; and the second is more about the benefits that I believe trees provide to our society as a whole.

I love spending time amongst trees and I am lucky enough to live on the edge of the New Forest, which has some beautiful woodland (though less than you might think). In the Telegraph article I cited above, Boudicca Fox-Leonard mentions the Japanese word ‘shinrin-yoku’, which literally means forest-bathing, and I find there is something immeasurably restorative about being immersed in the dappled light and many-hued greens and browns of forests.

A number of studies have been done which show that trees do exert a positive psychological impact not just on me, but on people in general. A study published in the journal Nature combined satellite imagery, individual tree data, and health surveys from 31,109 residents of the greater Toronto, Canada area. It found that people who live in areas with higher street tree density report better health perception compared with their peers living in areas with lower street tree density.

Trees also provide more tangible benefits:

  • They capture carbon and store it, which means that mass tree-planting can be an effective part of helping to reduce the impacts of climate change.
  • Tree-planting can help to reduce flooding by increasing water penetration and retention.
  • They offer habitats for many different types of wildlife.
  • Urban trees can play a key role in reducing urban heat island effect and regulating temperature in cities.

It is nothing less than a national tragedy that we do not have more trees, more protection for woodland and a culture that more meaningfully celebrates trees and the amazing benefits that they can give us. Many of the reasons for this are given in this superbly argued piece by George Monbiot, which specifically looks at what might happen after Brexit and the death of the current EU subsidies regime.

It is clear to me that something needed to be done and the launch of the tree charter seems like a positive first step.

The Woodland Trust first started the call for a tree charter 2015 by in response to the crisis facing trees and woods in the UK. Up until this point there has been no clear, unifying statement about the rights of people in the UK to the benefits of trees, woods and forests. The UK’s trees and woods face:

  • low planting rates;
  • lack of legal protection;
  • inconsistent management;
  • declining interest in forestry and arboriculture careers;
  • threats from housing and infrastructure development, pests, diseases and climate change.

Each one of these issues was being addressed in isolation by a small number of concerned organisations and tree lovers.

The Woodland Trust reached out to all sections of UK society to define the new charter, and to build a people-powered movement for trees. More than 70 organisations and 300 local community groups answered the call and helped to collect over 60,000 tree stories from people, demonstrating the important role that trees play in their lives. These stories were read and shared, and helped to define the 10 Principles of the Tree Charter, ensuring that it stands for every tree and every person in the UK.

On 6 November 2017, on the 800th anniversary of the 1217 Charter of the Forest, the new Charter for Trees, Woods and People was launched at Lincoln Castle – home to one of the two remaining copies of the 1217 Charter of the Forest. It now rests in the Lincolnshire Archives.

I think that the launch of the new charter is an important step in not only achieving the much-needed increase in planting rates, but also in terms of making trees a more crucial, better-understood and better-appreciated part of our wider culture. As Boudicca Fox-Leaonard wrote, ‘It only takes a minute to plant a tree, but the effects last more than our lifetime.’

Sign up to the tree charter and a tree will be planted for you.

 

21,930 Replies to “A new charter – and a new chance – for trees in the UK”