In recent years there have been moves to increase dramatically the number of trees that are planted across the UK. This has been stimulated, in particular, by the role trees may have in helping to combat climate change.

Up until now, there has been little questioning of these new policies: few are keen or feel able to argue the case against wide-scale tree planting. But while there are strong arguments in favour of tree planting in urban settings, there are many reasons to question whether we should be planning to remove large amounts of land in the form of either rich arable farmland or environmentally sensitive upland at a time of high and rising food prices.

In this report, we take a detailed look at these policies and set out their likely implications. We ask whether the objectives behind them could not be achieved by other and more effective means that help the UK meet climate change objectives, improve the quality of our woodlands but do not put further upward pressure on home grown food prices.
Woodlands.co.uk Trees Or Food Report 23May12