Forth Climate Forest | Scottish Land & Estates

Nominee Summary

The Forth Climate Forest is a tree planting initiative in the Forth Valley. Working with land managers, communities and partner organisations they aim to plant 16 million trees by 2033. They will plant trees in new areas and create wildlife corridors between existing planting to improve biodiversity, deliver community benefits, sequester carbon and improve urban tree canopy. As of March 2025, 2,958,520 trees were planted. The project demonstrates partnership working and delivering nature restoration work across a variety of contexts.

What was the motivation behind the work which was undertaken?

The aim is to improve the wellbeing of communities, boost biodiversity and improve habitat interconnectivity. The project focuses on 4 themes: communities, canopy, connectivity and carbon. For communities, the project aims to provide opportunities for communities to take action to tackle the climate and nature crises, as well as making the communities a better place to live and more resilient. For canopy, the project is targeting tree planting where it is needed most to support resilience to extreme weather events. For connectivity, the project aims to increase existing woodland connectivity to expand the woodland habitat network. For carbon, the planting of trees will support in sequestering more carbon to support net zero efforts. Overall, the trees will provide shade, shelter, reduce flooding, remove pollutants, improve air quality and create habitats.

Overcoming Challenges

The first year of the project largely focussed on development rather than active nature restoration - the project built partnerships, recorded and analysed tree cover, identified areas where trees can have the most benefits and started initial tree planting works, as well as raising awareness of the project. The initiative has been one of the Climate Forests projects in Scotland to receive significant funding from the Scottish Government to further progress work.

The Environmental, Social & Economic Benefits

Environmental: planting millions of trees, connecting disconnected habitat parcels, creation of new woodlands through planting and natural regeneration. Will have benefits for biodiversity, climate, flood management, pollution control, local temperature control and air quality. Social/economic: opportunities for local volunteering/skills building, tree planting work in schools to improve school estates, integrating trees into new housing developments, teaching children about climate and nature, health benefits of improved green spaces/shading/reduced air pollution.

Including the community

In the first year of the project the team: worked with 6 community groups to explore planting opportunities; worked with Treelink Stirling to develop 2 funding applications; worked with Forth Environment Link to scope work in 5 secondary schools; worked with The Conservation Volunteers to create 225 adult volunteer and 167 school children volunteer days; worked with Green Action Trust and Future Woodlands Scotland to analyse proposed canopy cover in 6 housing developments.