Introduction

This chapter contains statistics on:

• UK woodland area;
• certified woodland area;
• areas of new planting and restocking; and
• felling.

Estimates for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are included in addition to UK totals. International comparisons are provided in the International Forestry chapter. Further information on the data sources and methodology used to compile the figures is provided in the Sources chapter.

Figures on woodland area and certified woodland area at March 2017 and on new planting and restocking for the period 2016-17 were previously published in “Woodland Area, Planting and Publicly Funded Restocking: 2017 edition”, released on 15 June 2017. Some figures for previous years have been revised from those previously published. For further details on revisions, see the Woodland Areas and Planting section of the Sources chapter.

A copy of all woodland area and planting tables is available to download as an Excel spreadsheet from the Tables for Download page. Longer time series are also available for some tables. These can be accessed from our Woodland Area and Planting Statistics web page.

Key findings

The main findings are:

• The area of woodland in the UK at 31 March 2017 is estimated to be 3.17 million hectares. This represents 13% of the total land area in the UK, 10% in England, 15% in Wales, 18% in Scotland and 8% in Northern Ireland.
• Of the total UK woodland area, 0.86 million hectares (27%) is owned or managed by the Forestry Commission (in England and Scotland), Natural Resources Wales (in Wales) or the Forest Service (in Northern Ireland).
• The total certified woodland area in the UK at 31 March 2017 is 1.39 million hectares, including all Forestry Commission/Natural Resources Wales/Forest Service woodland. Overall, 44% of the UK woodland area is certified.
• Seven thousand hectares of new woodland were created in the UK in 2016-17, with conifers accounting for over one half (54%) of this area.
• A total of 196 sites were served with a Statutory Plant Health Notice in 2016-17, requiring a total of 0.7 thousand hectares of woodland to be felled. (This excludes areas felled within the Phytophthora ramorum management zone in south west Scotland, where a Statutory Plant Health Notice is not required.)

Additional resources

Sources chapter: Woodland area and planting