The UK government slashed its flagship environmental target for planting trees after lobbying by the National Farmers’ Union – which feared, among other things, that it could reduce land values.
The decision to cut the target for woodland creation in England conflicts with Britain’s net zero strategy, which includes plans for a major increase in tree planting to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Documents uncovered by openDemocracy through freedom of information law reveal the NFU’s efforts to convince environment secretary Therese Coffey that the original woodland target was “extremely ambitious, if not unachievable, particularly when compared against a backdrop of current planting rates”.
