Minutes of the APPG meeting 14 July 2025
Attendees
Parliamentary: Alex Mayer MP (Chair, Lab., Dunstable, Houghton Regis and Leighton Buzzard), representative of Sarah Dyke MP (Lib Dem., Glastonbury and Somerton), Baroness Young of Old Scone (Lab.), Lord Blencathra (Con.)
Woodland Trust: Harriet Downey, Nick Phillips, Scott Blance, Richard O’Callaghan, Andrew Weatherall (RSPB)
Apologies: Roz Savage MP, Gideon Amos MP, Chris Hinchcliffe MP, John Whitby MP, Feryal Clark MP, Lord Hall, Lord Gascoigne, Lord Roborough, Baroness Tyler of Enfield, Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville, Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall, Baroness Walmsley, Lord Teverson.
Minutes
The meeting commenced with opening remarks from the Chair Alex Mayer MP, who summarised some tree-related policy developments from the last year, including the announcement of £816 million for tree planting across the spending review period (2026/26-2028/29), and the announcement of the first of three new national forests pledged in the Labour manifesto. The Western Forest will see 20 million trees set to be planted across the West of England in the coming decades, creating at least 2,500 hectares of new woodland.
Harriet Downey from the Woodland Trust then gave a presentation outlining the key findings from the State of Woods and Trees report. The group was presented data on the current condition of the UK’s nature relating to trees across a range of factors, indicating that the condition of UK woodland needs to be dramatically improved to tackle biodiversity loss, as well as climate change, that the UK’s woodland wildlife is declining, even as tree cover increases, and that there are not enough trees of differing ages (providing habitats for the wide range of species) and a lack of open spaces, like glades and paths (allowing light in). In short, while canopy cover is slowly increasing, UK woodland is in no fit state to withstand an escalating range of threats or fulfil its vital role in mitigating the climate and nature crises. One attendee referenced the wellbeing chapter included in the report and its accompanying map visualising the findings, which led to a discussion on how the data should be appropriately interpreted. The map visualises the impact of woodlands on the public’s perceived wellbeing, and the discussion centred on whether or not that had any bearing on the underlying condition of the habitat.
Another attendee asked about the impact of trade deals on woods and trees and Nick Philips from the Woodland Trust responded that they were the greatest biosecurity threat facing trees and woods in the UK. He noted that the UK has just signed a trading agreement with the European Union that streamlines border checks and poses a significant threat to biosecurity, as superior diagnostic checks and regulatory systems in the UK will now be sidelined. The discussion concluded with confirmation that a series of parliamentary questions relating to the recommendations of the State of Woods and Trees report will be sent to APPG members over the summer recess to table in the autumn.
The group then had a presentation from Nick Philips and Andrew Weatherall, who outlined the transformative potential of ancient woodland restoration in establishing credibility for the UK ahead of the upcoming Conference of the Parties (COP) negotiations in November. COP30 will be held in the Amazon rainforest and it’s expected that forest protection will once again be high on the agenda. The UK’s international obligations place particularly strong duties to protect and restore established and ancient woodland. Whilst the UK has a history of international leadership at climate negotiations, this rests on domestic credibility and on actions to restore our ancient woodlands.
Nick explained that the importance of ancient woodland is being supported by the government in theory as opposed to practice. In England, the Government set a target to support restoration of 5,000 hectares of ancient woodland on plantation sites a year. New figures released show that the Government supported 0 hectares last year.
One attendee queried whether enough was known about the biodiversity of ancient and veteran trees and what species we can point to in illustrating their importance. There followed a discussion on the difficulty of communicating about certain species groups commonly associated with veteran trees such as bryophytes. In response, Andy Weatherall pointed to the importance of managing woodland habitats for iconic species like lesser spotted woodpecker or capercaillie.
The Woodland Trust and RSPB’s joint briefing detailed the key recommendations for the UK Government and led to questions from attendees on what parliamentarians can do to advance the issue. Nick responded that parliamentary questions that make the link between the state of our current woods and international forest commitments ahead of COP30 would be very timely in the run up to November. In addition, it would be helpful if parliamentarians could ask the Government what plans are in place to bring damaged ancient woodland into recovery and what progress (ha’s) they have made since coming into Government.
Alex Mayer then led a discussion on the latest activities regarding the APPG’s campaign to improve protections for heritage trees, concluding with agreement from attendees to table parliamentary questions relating to the Government-commissioned report published by the Tree Council in spring 2025.
Following this item, the Chair asked for opinions on future meeting topics, before bringing the meeting to a close.