Research
Social and Cultural Values and Trees on Farms in England
Research Status:current
This research involves working directly with farmers to better understand the barriers to and opportunities for increasing tree cover on farms. Specifically, it aims to explore how and where trees fit with farmers’ values – that is, where things matter to them for social, cultural, or moral reasons.
The primary focus is on trees outside woodland, including agroforestry, hedges, and in-field trees.
The research began in October 2021 and is scheduled to continue until March 2025.
This project is part of the Nature for Climate Fund.
Based on research in 2022 including an evidence review, expert interviews, and interviews with 33 farmers we have identified seven ‘domains’ of value that are likely to impact farmers’ ability and willingness to grow trees.
These domains form the basis of our developing values framework and inform our other research activities.
They are:
We are continuing to develop a framework as a tool to help think through the values which may impact farmers’ willingness or ability to grow trees. We aim to publish this in an academic journal in 2024. In 2024-25, our focus will be on working with stakeholders to find the most effective ways to apply the framework.
In late 2022, we completed a survey of farmers in England. The survey explored how important different values are to farmers, both in general and regarding growing trees. A highlights paper is available in the ‘Related content’ below, and we are working on an academic paper expanding the findings from this survey.
We have explored values in the context of dairy farming, producing a research report and an ‘in brief’.
We are currently working on researching values in the context of cereal farming. This work is due to be completed in mid-2024.
We are doing in-depth, biographical research with a few farmers who have substantially increased the number of trees on their farms. This work explores how values and behaviour change over time. We published four case studies in late 2023 and are currently working on a further four case studies.
DEFRA
Forestry Commission
Natural EnglandUnderstanding the range of values held by farmers in relation to trees allows us to learn how, when, and where farmers may embrace having trees on their land. Explicit consideration of these values will better enable those working to design policies, incentives, tools, advice, or other communications to do so in ways which are more […]
What leads some farmers to dramatically increase the number of trees on their land? What role do social and cultural values play? And how do values and behaviour interact? Increasing tree cover across England is a key priority for the UK government, driven by the benefits that trees and woodlands offer, such as climate change mitigation […]
This Research Report explores the issues that matter to dairy farmers in England regarding trees and increasing tree cover on farms. It looks beyond financial considerations to explore the other factors which guide and shape farmer attitudes and behaviours in this area. Understanding the range of values held by farmers in relation to trees allows […]
This research investigates why land managers may or may not adopt natural colonisation for tree expansion. It explores their attitudes, barriers, and support needs while evaluating the effectiveness of incentive schemes to improve engagement and policy support.
Social Scientist