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Britain lost 2 million acres of grassland to urban areas and forests since 1990

Grasslands have a vital role in attracting plant and insect diversity  - PA
Grasslands have a vital role in attracting plant and insect diversity - PA

Britain is at risk of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” by planting the wrong kinds of woodland, nature charities have warned, as new data shows more than a million acres of grassland have been displaced by trees since 1990.

Overall, Great Britain has lost 1.9 million acres of grassland to other uses between 1990 and 2015, according to new analysis of satellite data by the UK Centre of Ecology & Hydrology.

That includes 800,000 acres of new urban land, roughly the size of Cornwall, which is mostly in England. Scotland has gained 1.2m acres of woodland, almost the size of Norfolk, as its forestry industry has grown since the 1990s.

Argyll and Bute lost the largest amount of grassland (180,000 acres) in Great Britain and gained the largest area of woodland (160,000 acres).

The Conservative party pledged to plant 30 million trees per year in its 2019 election manifesto to help reach net zero targets and increase green spaces.

But the Wildlife Trusts warned there is a risk of harming biodiversity if we end up with monocultural tree plantations. “If we’re going to have any hope of reversing the appalling declines in wildlife that the UK has experienced in recent decades, we need to make more space for nature with at least a third of our land and sea being managed for nature’s recovery by 2030.

This means increasing overall land available for a range of critical habitat types and ensuring they are protected and connected,” said Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts.

“What we must avoid is robbing Peter to pay Paul; such as replacing species-rich grassland which is critical for hundreds of insect and birds species, with monoculture tree plantations which have precious little value for wildlife.”

Grasslands have a vital role in attracting plant and insect diversity, and store 2 billion tonnes of carbon across the country.

Increasing woodland cover also has a key role in locking up more carbon from the atmosphere. The UK has just 13 per cent woodland cover, compared to 38 per cent in Europe.

But historical tree planting initiatives have sometimes gone awry, particularly when only a single species is planted across a large area, as is often the case in the timber industry.

In one recent example, Nestle apologised and pulled up saplings it had sponsored in a dairy farm in Cumbria, after it emerged they had destroyed rare wild flowers.

Joanna Lewis, policy director at the Soil Association said the expansion in woodland was a good thing, but cautioned that “it is important that the right trees are grown in the right places for nature as well as climate.”

The analysis by UKCEH also showed a loss of nearly 200,000 acres of arable farmland, mostly in Scotland, with some increases in England.

Meanwhile, countryside charity CPRE said the displacement of grasslands in England for urban areas was "no coincidence" since the government "weakened national policies preventing low density new housing".

"Developers have been given free rein to build unaffordable, sprawling housing that make people far too car reliant. And this trend will worsen if the government continues to pursue plans to deregulate the planning system," Tom Fyans, campaigns and policy director said.

The analysis by UKCEH is the first time changes have been mapped so accurately and the centre plans to now produce annual land use maps.

Dr Daniel Morton, who developed the software, said it would help with monitoring the country’s progress toward its environmental goals.

“Producing land cover maps annually will enable the tracking of the UK’s progress towards the net zero emissions target by 2050 and the success of national tree planting initiatives, as well as give us greater ability to monitor vegetation responses to climate and land use changes plus extreme weather events,” he said.