{"id":223754,"date":"2025-10-14T10:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T10:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/223754\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T10:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T10:29:10","slug":"northern-ireland-failing-to-meet-tree-planting-targets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/223754\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland failing to meet tree planting targets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Louise CullenBBC News NI agriculture and environment correspondent<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

John Martin, the Woodland Trust’s NI director, said Northern Ireland “very much needs” to see tree planting increase<\/p>\n

Tree planting in Northern Ireland is too slow to meet legally binding targets and thousands of residents are living in “tree poor” neighbourhoods, according to the Woodland Trust.<\/p>\n

The organisation’s latest ‘State of The UK’s Woods and Trees: Northern Ireland’ report finds the failure to meet tree planting targets is putting climate action, nature recovery and community wellbeing at risk.<\/p>\n

Less than 20% of the 2030 target for new woodland has been planted between 2020 and 2024.<\/p>\n

The report calls for better protection for ancient and long-established woodlands, more investment in forestry skills, better evidence gathering, and prioritisation of tree planting in areas of greatest need.<\/p>\n

John Martin, director of the Woodland Trust NI, said Northern Ireland “very much needs” to see tree planting increase.<\/p>\n

“We haven’t met those targets and at the minute there is no plan in place to help meet those targets in a way that’s efficient to get to 2030.<\/p>\n

“The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago, the second-best time is today.<\/p>\n

“So we need to get on with this urgently.”<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

Just 8.6% of Northern Ireland’s land area is wooded<\/p>\n

Woodlands and trees in Northern Ireland face threats from pests and diseases like ash dieback.<\/p>\n

Deer, extreme weather exacerbated by climate change, and damage from pollution also threaten trees.<\/p>\n

Based on 2024 figures, just 1,700 hectares of new woodland have been planted between 2020 and 2024 \u2013 less than 20% of the 9,000-hectare 2030 target.<\/p>\n

Since those figures were collated, an additional 500 hectares has been planted in 2025.<\/p>\n

That still leaves almost 7,000 hectares to be planted in less than five years \u2013 just over 75% of the target.<\/p>\n

Just 8.6% of Northern Ireland’s land area is wooded, compared to 19% in Scotland, 15% in Wales, 11% in the Republic of Ireland, and 10% in England.<\/p>\n

Ancient woodland – that can be shown to be ancient with a high degree of certainty – is now extremely rare in Northern Ireland, at just 0.04%.<\/p>\n

“We visit probably some of our ancient woodland sites without even knowing they are ancient – some of those trees have been around since the 1600s,” Mr Martin said. <\/p>\n

“They have a very specific biodiversity associated with them – very specific soil, very specific species that exist within there and I think we probably just take that for granted.”<\/p>\n

The Woodland Trust has called on the Northern Ireland government to support stronger legal protection for the oldest and most significant trees.<\/p>\n

Post-Brexit uncertainty affecting tree planting<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said there were “a range of different reasons” for the slow pace of tree planting in Northern Ireland, including changes in land use as a result of Brexit. <\/p>\n

Under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (Cap), landowners received financial incentives if they set aside land for tree planting. <\/p>\n

Post-Brexit, Mr Martin explained: “There are still incentives there absolutely, but there is less certainty around what those incentives look like going forward.<\/p>\n

“There’s also been some delay to those grants going out.” <\/p>\n

The Woodland Trust NI director added that 75% of land in Northern Ireland is “managed for agriculture”. <\/p>\n

“We’re very good at growing grass in Northern Ireland,” he said, but added: “We’re way behind in terms of tree cover in comparison to other parts of the UK and Europe”. <\/p>\n

Health and wellbeing impact<\/p>\n

Urban Tree Canopy Cover (UTCC) averages just over 15% here, which is among the lowest in the UK.<\/p>\n

That figure drops to less than 10% in many urban areas.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said those low levels of tree cover can have a direct impact on people.<\/p>\n

“That health and wellbeing element is really important, but also those nature-based solutions – they draw in carbon, they give us shade, they improve water quality, they reduce flood risk.<\/p>\n

“All of those things are really important and by increasing our afforestation, we can increase more of those benefits to wider society.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louise CullenBBC News NI agriculture and environment correspondent BBC John Martin, the Woodland Trust’s NI director, said Northern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-223754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}