Many of you will be aware of the Welsh Government's ambitious tree planting targets to plant an additional 180,000 hectares by 2050 which will increase the woodland cover in Wales from 15% to 23%. Whilst this is primarily to help reach Net Zero emissions by 2050 in Wales, increasing biodiversity is also a key consideration.

However, will this additional demand for land and all these new trees actually deliver for biodiversity? Plantlife, a conservation charity working to save threatened wild flowers, plants and fungi, thinks not.

Their report ‘Forestry Recommissioned: Revitalising the Woodlands of Wales’ states ‘Unless woodland management is revitalised, we will continue to see a net loss of woodland plant diversity and abundance, however many new woodlands we create. We need to focus less on the quantity of woodland and focus instead on the quality.'

The FUW has long argued that woodland management is often overlooked in schemes, and that agri-environment prescriptions to exclude livestock from woodlands has not delivered for the environment. Plantlife believes active woodland management is key to preventing further biodiversity loss through grazing livestock, coppicing for firewood or timber and managing invasive species.

These figures highlight the value of using grazing livestock to create open areas within woodland:

• one factor behind the 50% decline in pied flycatcher in Wales is the reduction or cessation of grazing in upland oak woodlands, leading to overcrowded shrub and field layers
• The pearl-bordered fritillary, which likes open woodland, has declined by 80% since 1985
• Sadly only 7% of priority woodland wildlife is stable or increasing

Plantlife puts this down to many woodlands being neglected, mismanaged or under-managed. When left unmanaged and ungrazed, many woodlands have developed into high forest, devoid of structural complexity, habitat diversity and, crucially for many woodland plants and mosses, light. 

Many do not realise that farmers are currently penalised for existing woodland cover on farms, or that previous agri-environment schemes have made stock-excluding woodlands compulsory, with minimal, if any, continued management payments.
Therefore, in our 'Call to Action on Carbon Trading' report, we ask the Welsh Government to focus on rewarding and improving existing on-farm habitats, such as heathlands, ffriddoedd, farm woodlands and species rich grasslands, as opposed to focusing solely on creating new habitats or new woodlands. This would also ensure that increasing carbon sequestration and improving biodiversity can work alongside rather than displace farming systems, food production, rural communities and existing habitats.

Focusing on active management also benefits tenant farmers who would otherwise be unable to access long-term funding for tree planting. Or indeed, who would see their land being taken back by the landlord to capitalise on tree planting grants. Plantlife noted that ‘Planting new woodlands will not, for centuries, replicate the conservation importance of our ancient forests with their veteran trees’. 

Arguably, better rewarding farmers for creating new woodland through a ‘hedges and edges’ approach, as proposed by the Woodland Trust and supported by the FUW, would have more benefits for biodiversity than larger plantations. The Welsh Government’s own ‘Woodland for Wales’ report recognised that most of Wales’ native woodland is on farms and is ‘small and fragmented’, therefore on-farm connectivity, such as hedges, offers more for biodiversity and should be rewarded accordingly.

I’m sure our Hen-Daid or Great-Grandfather would be perplexed that we are being asked to re-learn how they used to manage their farm woodlands with livestock and harvesting for firewood, posts and hurdles, or laying hedges. But it is yet another example of going back to the old ways to tackle modern challenges.