Future of UK Treescapes

Improving trees, woods and forests for the benefit of people and nature

Expanding the UK’s treescapes is now widely seen as central to achieving the Government’s ambition to achieve
net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

However, to reverse decades of decline in biodiversity and environmental quality, our trees, woods, and forests need to become more resilient to pressures such as changing climate, disease, and competing land-use demands.

The pandemic showed a desire from communities for more engagement in nature. How can our forests and woodlands deliver what people need?

The UK plans to increase tree cover and planting, which has profound implications for biodiversity and landscapes throughout the country. But we needed answers about how to do this effectively for the environment and society.

The Future of UK Treescapes was a multimillion-pound research programme that addressed these urgent issues.

This site showcases our research findings and other project outputs to ensure the UK government, forestry organisations, and woodland managers have the most up- to-date data on treescape expansion and resilience.

Film: The Wonder of Treescapes

Coming Soon…

To celebrate our projects and their research, we commissioned Quintessence Films to create a documentary about our treescapes – why they matter to us as humans and stewards of the environment, how research enhanced our understanding of treescapes, and what we can do as people to grow and maintain treescapes in our local areas.

Watch the Film

End of programme report 2025

Our report describes the programme’s objectives and milestones in granular detail. It also reveals our top ten research insights across all the Treescapes projects.

We showcase each project and provide a snapshot of the researchers’ findings. See our Impact & Insights Notes where we dig down further into these insights.

Read report

Interdisciplinary

Working together across the environmental, social sciences, arts and humanities, we developed new insights into how our treescapes function and what they offer the environment, individuals and communities.

Collaborative

We brought together researchers, stakeholders and policymakers to develop effective, affordable and sustainable solutions.

Holistic

We took a whole-systems approach to treescapes as biophysical entities and cultural assets that are valued and appreciated in different ways by individuals and communities.

The Future of UK Treescapes programme was led by the Natural Environment Research Council (UKRI-NERC) and jointly funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (UKRI-AHRC) and the Economic & Social Research Council (UKRI-ESRC), with contributions from Defra, the Welsh and Scottish governments, and the Forestry Commission.

Projects