Woodland Expansion in Upland National Parks: An Analysis of Stakeholder Views and Understanding in the Dartmoor National Park, UK

Olivia Fitzgerald,Catherine Collins,Clive Potter

doi:10.3390/land10030270

Abstract

Woodland expansion on a significant scale is widely seen to be critical if governments are to achieve their net zero greenhouse gas ambitions. The United Kingdom government is committed to expanding tree cover from 13% to at least 17% in order to achieve net zero by 2050. With much lowland area under agricultural production, woodland expansion may be directed to upland areas, many of which are national parks under some degree of conservation jurisdiction. This may prove to be controversial, requiring full engagement with the interests of those individuals with a stake in their protection and management. In this paper, we explore how a range of stakeholders view the prospect of woodland expansion in Dartmoor National Park in southwest England, UK. Fifteen stakeholders—a mix of key informants and farmers—were shown different woodland expansion scenarios in map form and consulted using semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest widespread enthusiasm for woodland expansion, but with significant differences in terms of the scale and approach. Stakeholders raised topics of biodiversity gain, climate change mitigation, environmental benefits, cultural ecosystem gain, and forest crop benefits. Caution was expressed regarding target setting, the place of woodland expansion in the national debate, and the potential for harm from inappropriate new planting. The constraints identified were land tenure patterns, notably tenancy insecurity and ‘common land’ challenges, historical farming policy and culture, landscape objectives, and future policy design.

Highlights

Committing to achieving net zero emissions is a widely shared ambition amongst those countries that were signed up to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change [1]
Two further reports exceed these tree cover recommendations: the Centre for Alternative Technology’s (CAT) ‘Zero-Carbon Britain’ report recommends 24% tree cover and Friends of the Earth (FOE) suggest doubling UK tree cover to 26% [4,5]
The case site was suitable as the 12.5% tree cover is close to the UK national park median (16.4%) and the Dartmoor National Park Authority’s (DNPA) draft Management Plan was open to public consultation at the time of study

Summary

Introduction

Committing to achieving net zero emissions is a widely shared ambition amongst those countries that were signed up to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change [1]. This strategy involves both emissions reduction and the sequestration of any remaining emissions [3]. A significant element of the sequestration strategy involves an increase in UK tree cover from 13% to at least 17%, which equates to planting at least 30,000 hectares per year from 2024 until 2050. 23), and the influential National Farmers’ Union has produced a net-zero report, signaling a move towards tree planting [7]. The NFU proposes that ‘increasing farmland woodland could deliver GHG savings of 0.7 MtCO2e/year’, and it indicates that the farming community is open to increasing tree cover, but without specific targets [7] The NFU proposes that ‘increasing farmland woodland could deliver GHG savings of 0.7 MtCO2e/year’, and it indicates that the farming community is open to increasing tree cover, but without specific targets [7] (p. 8)

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Conclusion