Context

In the UK, woodlands play an important role in supporting biodiversity, providing important services, such as reducing flood risk and storing carbon, as well as benefiting our mental health and social wellbeing. However, the ability to protect, maintain and enhance woodlands is often constrained by limited investments and resources. Therefore, prioritisation is needed to maximise benefits.

Gwent, a preserved county in South East Wales, is home to over half a million people making it one of the most populated regions in Wales. The landscape is varied, comprising rural countryside areas (deep valleys, plateau uplands and lowlands) as well as heavily urbanised centres (Figure 1).

The Gwent Green Grid Partnership (GGGP) is a collaboration of the five local authorities of Gwent, working with Natural Resources Wales and other partners and stakeholders. It aims to improve green infrastructure in the area to increase the resilience of the environment for the benefit of wildlife and people. To achieve this, GGGP wanted us to identify priority woodlands to target for management and, subsequently, develop basic woodland management plans for each site.

What we did

We produced two products for GGGP;

1. A 10-year Priority Planting Plan; a spatial dataset showing woodland creation opportunities across Gwent.
2. A Woodland Investment Prioritisation Tool; a model that prioritises a woodland’s biodiversity and management status based on 16 indicators.

These products are “living”; they provide relevant information that can be queried and interrogated by GGGP. They are also easy to update when new information is obtained.

10-year Priority Planting Plan

We created a plan that identifies areas with the greatest potential for successful woodland creation. Existing data, produced by Welsh Government, locates areas which have the greatest potential for woodland creation. We improved upon this information to exclude other areas of importance such as land with statutory designations (e.g. Sites of Special Scientific Interest) and land unsuitable for woodland planting (e.g. scheduled monument sites). Table 1 outlines our reasoning for excluding these areas.

Woodland Investment Prioritisation Tool

This tool prioritises a woodland’s biodiversity and management status based on 16 indicators. These indicators were selected from a mixture of biodiversity and management options including ownership, accessibility and condition. Each indicator was scored based on its importance for woodland management. From this, an overall priority score was generated. The mapped results show woodlands ranked in order of investment priority (Figure 2).

Outcomes

We produced a number of maps for each local authority identifying the highest priority woodland sites within that authority. These can be used to target investment resources. Our Woodland Investment Prioritisation Tool enables users to quickly interrogate each of the indicators at any woodland site across Gwent. They are able to filter the data based on the indicators of most importance to them, prioritising areas to target for woodland enhancement.

Summary

We were able to identify areas with the greatest potential for successful woodland establishment within Gwent. We achieved this by adding value to existing data; refining and adding more insights based on the priorities of the GGGP. By taking into consideration factors such as current woodland condition, ownership and accessibility, the GGGP are better able to target their investment of woodland management resources. This increases the likely return on investment for both social and environmental benefits.