Natural environment

  1. Key initiatives
  2. Natural environment

Our natural, land-based environment is key to reducing the carbon emissions in our atmosphere. Soil is increasingly recognised as a vital carbon sink - a way of capturing and storing the carbon in our atmosphere so it doesn't warm the planet. Improving the way we manage, restore and protect land – crucial to the food we grow, the air we breathe and protection from floods – is essential, and can make a huge difference to biodiversity too.

Research indicates that about a third of the greenhouse gas reductions needed by 2030 can be provided by the restoration of natural habitats, but such solutions have attracted just 2.5% of the funding for tackling emissions. Natural climate solutions have been shown to draw millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere with huge improvements in biodiversity and benefits for people.

Urban green spaces also have a role in storing carbon, as well as helping to mitigate the likelihood of flooding.27 They take in more carbon than they return to the atmosphere, however their design and maintenance does play a huge part in how much carbon they will store. A forest-like design with many trees and native vegetation will be more effective than a neat, manicured park-like design, and care for mature trees is also essential.

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Natural England’s Access to Nature programme, funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.

Co-benefits

One of the more visible co-benefits to restoring our natural environment comes from the increase in biodiversity that it can bring about. Returning degraded landscapes to how they once were provides a habitat for native flora and fauna species to flourish. Peatland restoration can benefit households and businesses in towns and cities downstream that require clean drinking water sources from remote peatlands32. Afforestation and reforestation offer additional recreational, health and wellbeing benefits. Greening urban spaces can be an antidote to the pressures of life in modern towns and cities, and a catalyst to improve physical fitness, reduce depression, enhance health and wellbeing33. Through improving air quality and reducing the impact of extreme weather – from floods to droughts and heatwaves – green spaces can also keep communities safer.

Projects

Andover Trees United

Andover Trees United is a volunteer-led charity promoting conservation and environmental stewardship and improving access to nature. The project has a 10-year aim to involve every young person in the community in the planting of 10,000 trees to create new woodland in Andover, Hampshire. Since 2012 the organisation has been working with 25 schools in the Andover area to plant 12 acres of new, publicly accessible woodland, meadows and ponds. The charity also runs weekly training and volunteering sessions for adults in the woodland and on the community allotment. By involving the whole community in creating this natural resource for the whole of Andover to enjoy, the group aims to “aid the development of a sense of community and inclusivity in our expanding town”.

How it came about

The project was initially developed by Transition Andover, in 2011. A team of 25 local residents came together to form a steering group to push forward the project. Children at local schools came up with the name for the project and the woodland (Harmony Woods) and planting began in 2012. The 12acre Harmony Woods site sits within a 44-acre field, forming the largest part of Hampshire’s Diamond Wood, one of 60 new woods planted in celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

How it works

In order to achieve the aim for every young person in the community over the course of the decade to have planted at least one tree in Harmony Woods, the project distributes 1,000 tree whips (unbranched tree stems) between December and February of each year to the 25 schools involved in the project. The whips are planted in nursery beds in the school grounds and pupils care for them until the following winter when they are dug up and taken to Harmony Woods for planting. Over a ‘planting fortnight’ at the end of November each year, 1,000 children come to the woods for a half-day planting session and other activities, helped by teams of volunteers.

Andover Trees United has developed a broad base of partners who all contribute to furthering the aims of the project including local schools, local authorities, the local university archaeology department, North Wessex Downs AONB, the Jane Goodall Institute, local businesses and artists.

Co-benefits

To date, 8,000 children have worked with Andover Trees United over the last eight years, planting 8,000 trees in Harmony Woods. A further two thousand will pass through the programme over the next two years. These children are all learning new skills and gaining knowledge about how woodland is managed and about protecting biodiversity. Tree planting is also a key climate action, with woodland being capable of sequestering carbon, as well as providing habitats for important native species.

"The wood is a lovely place to spend a morning or afternoon listening to the skylarks song, watch the swifts dive bomb the pond for insects or catch up with friends over a cuppa by the wood burning stove. In the last year I’ve learned to coppice hazel, identify potential Bronze Age artefacts, name at least 3 tree and 4 bird species, what a traditional British hedge is made up of and that we have volunteers who make great cakes.” Adrian, Volunteer

Andover Trees United has a YouTube channel with a number of videos highlighting the project’s work.

Carrifran Wildwood

Carrifran Wildwood is an ecological restoration project set up by a group of friends in southern Scotland who hoped “to demonstrate that, in a world awash with problems, we need not sit back and wring our hands”. The project aims to “provide both a symbol of the power of individuals to reverse environmental degradation and an inspiration for others to make even bolder efforts.” With this project the organisers are developing a natural ecosystem and a haven for native Scottish plants and animals which will be there for decades, even centuries, to come.

How it came about

With the help of 1,000 supporters across the UK and overseas the group purchased Carrifran, a 1,600-acre valley in the Moffat Hills and set about the task of restoring it to wooded landscape.

How it works

The land was purchased by public subscription on 1st January 2000, and since then supporters and contractors have been working hard to create a large area of wild and wooded land. This has been achieved through tree planting (over half a million in the first decade) over more than 300 hectares to create a young woodland in the lower half of the valley along with shrubs and trees higher up. Over time the level of intervention will gradually be reduced as the ecosystem develops and natural regeneration takes over. The contractors involved in the project are individuals or members of small companies who, after many years of involvement, have become an integral part of the project.

The Wildwood is owned by a charity, the Borders Forest Trust. The project has been supported by Scottish National Heritage, who have provided funding for a Project Officer, and the John Muir Trust.35 The support of local contractors, who have planted hundreds of thousands of trees and shrubs in inhospitable conditions, has been a key reason for the project’s success. In addition to this the project has been funded by a variety of public and private sector organisations including the Forestry Commission, WWF and Scottish Power.

Co-benefits

The project was originally set up expressly with the aim of ecological restoration: bringing back an ecosystem that had disappeared due to centuries of overgrazing and burning. This process will take many decades to be realised but already there is a visible difference to the biodiversity of the site. Regular surveys are being conducted in order to quantify these improvements.

There will also be substantial carbon sequestration benefits (capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide) from the project. Carrifran Wildwood has been approached by a carbon offset company which offered to pay for the carbon which would be sequestered by trees growing over the coming century. The funding amounted to £50,000 and represents around 4% of the project’s funding to date.

Some useful links to tools and resources for natural environment-related projects: