Friday 21 August 2020

Guaranteed income offered to landowners planting new woodland

Land managers and farmers can secure guaranteed income for tree planting as the result of the latest stage of the Forestry Commission's Woodland Carbon Guarantee.

The £50 million scheme aims to help accelerate woodland planting rates to increase the amount of carbon dioxide being absorbed from the atmosphere.

Under the scheme, tree planting projects are eligible to receive long-term payments for the amount of carbon that the new woodland will store - landowners will be able to bid to sell woodland carbon to the government in the form of Woodland Carbon Units (a financial value given to each tonne of carbon stored) at a guaranteed price over a 35-year period.

The previous wave of the auction, which closed in June 2020, saw 27 contracts offered to help stimulate the creation of 1,517 hectares of new woodland across the country.

Sir William Worsley, Chair of the Forestry Commission, said: “This pioneering scheme could be the perfect fit for many farmers and land managers looking to help tackle the climate and nature crises now upon us.

“Results from the second auction show the scheme is growing in its success, providing more land managers with long-term income support for creating new woodland.

The UK Government has committed to increase tree planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares per year by 2025.