Uncontrolled tree planting to offset carbon emissions ‘a threat to Welsh landscape’

Planting trees to ease the climate emergency could alter the look of British landscapes and lead to a loss of farms, conservationists have warned.

Investment companies are reported to be buying land in Wales as woodland is widely considered a relatively quick way to tackle the heating of the planet because they soak up carbon dioxide.

But the Snowdonia Society warned uncontrolled tree planting would harm wildlife and communities. It called for a "national conversation" to agree how and where new trees will be planted.

Wales is already been dealing with the fallout of similar mass planting over the last 50 years, according to the society.

The devolved government is aiming to have 86 million trees planted by the end of the decade, as advised by the Committee on Climate Change.

The UK’s woodland cover has more than doubled in the past 100 years, but much of that is non-native trees, according to the Woodland Trust.

The trust says native woodlands are “isolated and in poor ecological condition” and wildlife is declining.

The Welsh government wants to turn 100,000 hectares of land into woodland by 2030, with a grant scheme offering incentives of up to £250,000.

But John Harold, director of the Snowdonia Society, said: “We need to have the right policies and the right response in place because we are talking about potentially very large amounts of money behind the desire to do this offsetting.

“We’ve been here before, in the 1970s and ’80s when great dark blankets of plantation forestry were dropped on the landscape at random and we’ve been dealing with the consequences ever since.

“It impacts communities, landscape and wildlife.

“We need a conversation about where we want trees and where we can accommodate them."

Snowdonia National Park Authority said it had been approached about tree-planting by a mix of parties, from individuals looking to offset their carbon footprint to agent-led applications for large swathes of land, mostly from England.

The authority’s planning powers do not cover tree planting.

But the Welsh government has said there was "very little evidence" valuable Welsh farmland is being sold off to investors to offset their carbon footprints.

It told the BBC that planting 86 million new trees would offer a "considerable opportunity" to the rural economy to create green jobs and skills in harvesting timber.

Deputy minister for climate change Lee Waters said: "We are keen to avoid outside interests buying up land and we want to work with Welsh farmers and landowners to achieve this.

"The Welsh government will only fund woodland projects that are able to demonstrate they meet the high standards required by our schemes."

Biodiversity experts have previously said poorly planned tree planting schemes are doing more harm than good.

In 2020 research by Colorado State University found that the amount of carbon that new forests can absorb may be overestimated.

The UK government is aiming to at least treble tree planting rates in England by the end of the parliament.