Rescue our vanishing ancient woodlands 

I live in Wales/Northern Ireland. Can I get involved?  

The Woodland Trust is actively restoring plantation-damaged ancient woodlands across the UK and is working with Governments to improve policy for these irreplicable sites.  The Forgotten Forests campaign is only currently running in Scotland and England. Roughly 80% of the UK’s plantation-damaged ancient woodlands are in Scotland and England so we are focussing efforts there.  

The Woodland Trust is a proudly four country charity, and we continue to campaign for woods and trees wherever we are needed. Most often, this means running different campaigns in different countries, responding to their unique needs and contexts. 

If you’d like to explore other ways to get involved with our work elsewhere, and to speak up for woods and trees across the UK, we have plenty of resources to help you Campaign in Your Community. 

Why are they called ‘Forgotten’ Forests? What about those already working hard to save them? 

‘Forgotten Forests’ highlights that these plantation sites have been largely forgotten by the governments of England and Scotland:  

In England, there are ambitious targets to restore approximately 5 thousand hectares of ancient woodland plantation every year until 2030. However, in 2023-4, the English government supported the restoration of only 6 hectares of privately owned PAWS. And in 2024-5, this number was 0 hectares.  
This means that the English Government has reported supporting the restoration of roughly the equivalent of 6 rugby pitches of ancient woodland in private hands over the last two years, against a target of 10,000 rugby pitches. 

In Scotland, no such targets exist, and restoration is largely overlooked.  

With so little action being taken to restore them, it is fitting to call these the UK’s ‘Forgotten Forests’.  
Importantly, there are committed landowners and forestry experts across the country who are already doing excellent work to restore and actively manage their plantations in sustainable and ecologically beneficial ways.   We are campaigning to support those these people, encouraging others to follow their lead. 

Now is the time to remember and restore our Forgotten Forests.  
 

Don’t we need timber plantations? / What is the Woodland Trust’s stance on commercial forestry?  

We absolutely do need timber plantations; it is simply inappropriate for these to be on the tiny remaining fraction of land that is Ancient Woodland!  

Ancient Woodlands are irreplicable habitats, with unique soils, seedbanks, and ecological interconnections that have developed slowly over thousands of years. If they are damaged beyond repair – such as by replanting timber plantations – they could be lost forever. They cannot be recreated elsewhere - we can’t just ‘plant another ancient woodland’.  

Ancient Woodlands offer immense benefits to biodiversity, carbon storage, and health and wellbeing to name a few. As such, these precious areas are far more valuable as thriving, wildlife rich Ancient Woodland than plantations on ancient woodland sites. This makes restoring our plantation-damaged ancient woodlands an important priority – instead of replanting them with new timber crops and retaining them as plantations.   

The Woodland Trust fully appreciates the need for a reliable supply of UK timber, and we work hard to build and maintain positive working relationships across the commercial forestry sector. 

Notably, plantation restoration can deliver timber over many decades, often in a more localised way than commercially restocking a site.
 
Gradual felling during a long restoration process can supports a varied and localised timber industry, with many people and businesses able to benefit from the timber produced, over a far greater timespan.  
Similarly, some plantations on ancient woodlands have been abandoned, being too difficult to commercially manage. In these cases, restoration will bring far more timber to market than was otherwise possible. 

Conifers, and conifer plantations, do play an important role in the UK’s timber security and self-sufficiency. When managed well, plantations can offer considerable carbon-storage benefits and do have some biodiversity value of their own.
 
However, this carbon-storage and biodiversity value is considerably less than that offered by restored ancient woodland. So, again, we absolutely do need plantations, just not on the tiny fraction of land that is irreplicable ancient woodland