Positive effect on health, climate change and UK economy

Eight million UK citizens affected by lung disease, an annual £25bn combined cost to the government and industry of the 2.5m people currently on incapacity benefit and a child obesity rate of 27%. These are just some of the shocking statistics that the Woodland Trust wants to see reduced by increasing tree and woodland cover throughout the UK – and to highlight how this can work has produced a document entitled “Woods and health”.

The Trust believes that trees and woods are vital to the health and well-being of people in the UK. There is a strong correlation between the quality of the natural environment where people live and their health and well-being. Increasing tree and woodland cover can be seen to reduce the impacts of poor air quality, mitigate some of the effects of a warming climate, particularly in urban areas, and increase the opportunities for people to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

It is little known that the UK is one of the least wooded countries in Europe with woodland cover only 11% (only half of which is native broadleaf woodland) compared to the European average of 44%. Yet the importance of trees and woods has never been more apparent – regulating climate, improving flow and quality of water, reducing air pollution, conserving soil, storing carbon and helping society adapt to climate change.
Dr Hilary Allison, the Woodland Trust’s Policy Director explains: “Unhealthy lifestyles and the impact of climate change on the places where we live can both be tackled by increasing the amount of woods and trees especially in urban areas where most of us live and can help the bottom line as well.”

Trees and woodlands are clearly coming to the fore of government thinking, as highlighted by Forestry Minister Huw Irranca-Davies MP recently announcing the Government’s Low Carbon Transition Plan, which supports a drive to create 10,000 hectares of woodland per annum for 15 years, which would†lock up†50m tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2050.

The Woodland Trust hopes this will prove to be the beginning of a long term strategy to include trees and woodland as an integral part of government planning with regard to climate change. And with the forthcoming Copenhagen summit in December the Trust would like the document to provide a timely reminder as to the importance of trees and woods on so many levels.

More information: www.woodlandtrust.org.uk