Funding nature recovery in England

Creating a healthy, resilient natural environment will require billions of pounds of investment. While successive governments have made commitments to nature recovery, there is a disconnect between the scale of the nature crisis and the actions so far being taken to deliver change.

With less than 10% of the UK’s native woods in good ecological condition, it is clear that getting a whole country on a path to nature recovery is a huge task. Many organisations, including the Woodland Trust, have a part to play but we will not get the healthy, diverse, resilient natural environment we need without the public sector showing leadership in funding, regulation and policy.

As this paper discusses, performing these functions effectively will need:

• an ambitious, joined-up approach led by government, with a clear long-term plan setting out how recovery will be measured, paid for and delivered
• effective regulation to protect existing nature, including woods and trees
• high and stable levels of public investment supported by the encouragement of well-managed nature markets.