Summary

This project will gather evidence to better understand the social and cultural value of Trees outside Woodlands in peri-urban and rural areas (ToWPUR). ToWPUR make up almost one fifth of tree cover in Great Britain yet remain an understudied part of English treescapes.

The England Tree Planting Programme (ETPP) looks set to dramatically change the rate of woodland creation and expansion in coming years. By addressing the evidence gap around social and cultural values and ToWPUR, this research will support the ambitions of the ETPP while feeding into a variety of policy aims relating to the societal benefits and impact of tree-planting and management.

This project is part of the Nature for Climate Fund.

Forest Research and Natural England colleagues on a site visit together in the Lake District. As part of some pilot testing of the dead and decaying trees questionnaire survey.
Forest Research and Natural England colleagues on a site visit together in the Lake District as part of some pilot testing of the dead and decaying trees’ questionnaire survey.

Research Objectives

  1. Better understand the social and cultural value of ToWPUR amongst a range of publics, especially in relation to tree planting and establishment.
  2. Build an interdisciplinary understanding of the value of ToWPUR through close working with the project’s natural science counterpart (The ecological function of Trees outside Woodland).
  3. Provide evidence relating to social and cultural values to inform policy, research, and management of ToWPUR.

Findings and Recommendations

Our interdisciplinary scoping study embraced the range of social sciences which engage with the social and cultural values of nature, as well as consideration of the arts and humanities.

This resulted in:

  • A literature review on the social and cultural value of trees
  • Secondary data analysis from a partner project that investigated public engagement with nature during the Covid-19 pandemic. This focused on the benefits of engaging with trees and treed spaces.

Working with an external contractor to develop a series of outputs which both consider how social and cultural values of ToWPUR are reflected in the arts and how the arts influence social and cultural values of ToWPUR.

Development of an interactive and accessible guide to understanding and working with ToWPUR in policy, practice and research settings. This drew on learning from an expert workshop, as well as previous scoping activities.

Latest Update

Drawing on ideas from our Project Advisory Group and the scoping work, we identified 3 empirical research projects and associated methodologies:

  1. Research into young people’s socio-cultural values in relation to Trees outside Woodland and landscape change.
  2. Research to understand visitor attitudes and values in relation to dead and decaying trees in the landscape (peri-urban and rural)
  3. Research to understand values and attitudes held by professional communities of practice in relation to Sycamore as a ToWPUR

Data collection for each of these is now underway. This project is set to finish in March 2025.

General Content

Downloads

Trees and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Publication webpage

PDF | 6.51 MB

Trees Outside of Woodland: An exploration of social and cultural values: a photo essay

Publication webpage

PDF | 9.34 MB

A guide to working with the social and cultural values people hold regarding Trees outside of Woodland

Publication webpage

PDF | 6.65 MB

Funding & Partners

  • This project has been funded through the Government's ‘ Nature for Climate Fund’
  • Defra logo DEFRA

  • Project Advisory Group

  • Arboricultural Association
  • Forestry Commission
  • Natural England
  • Scottish Forestry
  • Tree Council
  • University of Exeter
  • University of Leeds
  • Welsh Government