Potential areas for woodland creation in the UK

Abstract

A raster GIS layer covering the UK, showing percentage of ground potentially available for woodland creation within each 5km grid cell. Areas considered unavailable for woodland creation included higher quality agriculture land and existing woodland (the modification of which could reduce agricultural or timber production, leading to offshoring of emissions), sites designated for nature conservation, priority habitats and peatlands (to avoid perverse outcomes for soil carbon or biodiversity) and existing buildings, infrastructure and archaeological features. Some excluded areas were further buffered to limit possible negative spill-over effects of woodland creation, such as on peatland hydrology, or to reduce predation in sites designated for conservation of wading birds. Full details of the methodology and input layers are available in the layer metadata document.