Northern Ireland must increase tree planting urgently - Woodland Trust

The State of the UK's Woods and Trees 2025: Northern Ireland report, launched today (Tuesday 14 October), reveals that Northern Ireland not only has the lowest woodland cover in the UK and Ireland, but is failing to meet its own tree planting targets, putting climate action, nature recovery and community wellbeing at risk.

Just 8.6% of Northern Ireland’s land area is wooded, compared to 19% in Scotland, 15% in Wales, 11% in the Republic of Ireland and 10% in England. Even more starkly, tree canopy in towns and cities averages only 15.2%, amongst the lowest in the UK.

In many urban areas, the figure drops below 10%, meaning that thousands of residents live in ‘tree poor’ neighbourhoods with less shade, poorer air quality and fewer green spaces to support health and wellbeing.

Woodland creation not hitting targets

In 2020, DAERA launched its Forests for Our Future programme with an ambition to plant 18 million trees and create 9,000 hectares of new woodland by 2030 to help mitigate the ongoing climate and nature crises.

Planting rates since the programme’s launch have consistently fallen short of this target. Between 2020 and 2024, 1,700 hectares of new woodland have been planted, less than a fifth of the 9,000-hectare target, leaving 7,300 hectares still to be planted by 2030. The Woodland Trust Northern Ireland warns that current progress is far too slow to support carbon reduction targets set out in the Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022.

Existing woodlands at risk

The report also finds that many of Northern Ireland’s woodlands face threats from invasive species, overgrazing by deer and a lack of management. Compared to the rest of the UK, data on both the presence and distribution of introduced pests and diseases in Northern Ireland is sparse.