National Forest CC Lecture 14 March 2023 Heather (PDF)

Climate Change Mitigation in the National Forest What is the National Forest? Derby Burton upon Trent Birmingham Swadlincote Ashby de la Zouch Coalville Nottingham Leicester Transformed the landscape from black… Sence Valley 1995 Local communities dominated by coal mining Hicks Lodge Lat...

Climate Change Mitigation in the National Forest What is the National Forest? Derby Burton upon Trent Birmingham Swadlincote Ashby de la Zouch Coalville Nottingham Leicester Transformed the landscape from black… Sence Valley 1995 Local communities dominated by coal mining Hicks Lodge Late 1990s …to green Sence Valley today 70 community groups now managing woodlands Hicks Lodge National Forest cycle centre 2018 Restored environment Hicks Lodge late 1990s Hicks Lodge cycle centre 2020 Our Vision • Working at the intersection of environment, economy and society • Positive impact on all three outcomes • Demonstrate sustainable living Low Carbon High Nature Positive Wellbeing Trees as a catalyst for change 30 years, 9 million trees 30 years, 9 million trees Mechanisms of tree planting • Grant aid to landowners • • • Private or public Majority of our planting Large scale transformation to individual trees in a field • Working with local authorities through the planning system • Land acquisition Impacts on biodiversity Species Abundance Species Richness National Forest Company, 2022 Comparison to national trends National Trend National Forest Trend Small mammals -0.8% per year + 1.8% per year Bats +0.9% per year +86% per year Birds -5% over five years +132 % over five years -16% over fifteen years +14.8% per year Butterflies National Forest Company, 2022 ~450,000 tonnes of carbon stored in the National Forest National Forest Company, 2021 Carbon stored in National Forest Tonnes of carbon stored in different woodland types in the National Forest National Forest Company, 2021 Can we improve our carbon sequestration rates? • Currently require over 80% broadleaf • Majority native or naturalised • However, conifers sequester carbon more quickly • But need to balance carbon sequestration and local fit for biodiversity and landscape • Is that feasible if landowners are relying on income from carbon? • Are native broadleaf species going to be resilient moving forward? https://woodlandcarboncode.org.uk/ Restoring Resilient Ecosystems • Aims to unpick and examine the essential elements required for ecosystem restoration, focusing on UK woodlands and grasslands • RestREco considers complexity and resilience as fundamental aims for restoration projects, rather than attempting to re-create specific target ecosystems. Bullock et al., 2021 Carbon Removal Beyond Tree Planting Biochar Demonstrator Project • Very little work done on effects of adding biochar to temperate woodland • If no negative effect, could provide huge opportunity for carbon capture • Test site in the Forest where biochar was incorporated into soil prior to tree planting • Different application methods have been trialled, including surface spreading and burial www.biochardemonstrator.ac.uk Are there ways we can reduce carbon emissions in the first place? Sustainable low carbon tourism Greenwood Days E-Bike Holidays Timber Festival Forest accommodation Charnwood Wigwams YHA, National Forest FA Centre - St George’s Park Rosliston Forestry Centre Progress to date 2003 2018 2019 2020 2021 % increase 2003 vs 2019 Visitor Numbers M 6.770 8.910 9.171 4.625 8.047 35.5% Visitor Spending £ 353.87 490.84 502.23 258.65 420.02 36.3% Tourism Jobs FTE 3,959 5,365 5,404 3,003 4,430 36.5% Accommodation development Increase the supply of ‘on brand’ sustainable tourism accommodation to meet market expectations Support landowners and developers to embed the principles outlined in the design guide within their development plans Support landowners and developers to be pre-app ready The seven sustainable design principles How do we affect behaviour change? Nature connection and wellbeing in the UK Provide space near to where people live and work 80% of new sites provide access to the public Creating a Forest for Learning We worked with primary schools across the Forest to support them in providing outdoor learning to their pupils. Interventions included: • • • Funding for infrastructure development on site and nearby Funding for Forest School training for staff Establishment of an outdoor learning network allowing schools to learn from each other The Natural Health Service Spending time in nature delivers proven benefits for mental health and wellbeing. Green social prescribing - the practice of supporting people to engage in nature-based activities to improve their mental health and wellbeing. Green social prescribing enables more people to experience nature as an effective way of improving mental resilience and supporting mental health. National cross-governmental ‘Test and Learn’ pilots. • Influence policy change at a national level • System change to drive efficiency and joining up health, social care and communities • Funding better targeted to improve the nation’s health Maximising wellbeing benefits We are collaborating with researchers from the University of Derby to look at how different types of treescapes affect people’s perceived wellbeing while walking in nature Eight walks established across the National Forest, all accessible through the GoJauntly app Data collected will inform our future planting designs to maximise benefits for people www.gojauntly.com/treefest National Forest Community Woods project • Over 60 individual community groups and organisations across the Forest involved in regularly managing woodlands and community greenspaces. • Community Woods network – active network of groups where sharing of resources, knowledge, skills and ideas is encouraged. • Over 40,000 volunteer hours recorded in the National Forest 2021-22 Where is the money coming from? How is all this funded? National Lottery Heritage Fund Nature for Climate fund Corporate Sponsorship Private Investors Individual donors Blending public and private finance Habitat restoration provides a wealth of benefits Many corporate and private investors keen to support these Mechanisms for this support currently messy and unclear NFC about to embark on project to assess how private financing can be incorporated to support landowners to provide nature-based solutions Thank you Heather Gilbert| Research & Evidence Manager [email protected] 01283 551 211 www.nationalforest.org @NatForestCo @NatForestCo @the.national.forest References National Forest Company (2022). Biodiversity change in the National Forest: 1990 – 2019. www.nationalforest.org Bullock, J.M., Fuentes-Montemayor, E., McCarthy, B., Park, K., Hails, R.S., Woodcock, B.A., Watts, K., Corstanje, R. & Harris, J. (2021) Future restoration should enhance ecological complexity and emergent properties at multiple scales. Ecography Richardson, M., Hamlin, I., Elliott, L.R. et al. Country-level factors in a failing relationship with nature: Nature connectedness as a key metric for a sustainable future. Ambio 51, 2201–2213 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01744-w