Community forests in England


's twelve community forests are afforestation-based regeneration projects which were established in the early 1990s. Each of them is a partnership between the Forestry Commission and the Countryside Agency, which are agencies of the British government, and the relevant local councils.
Most of the designated areas are close to large cities and contain large amounts of brownfield, underused and derelict land. When the forests were created the average forest cover in the designated areas was 6.9%, and the target is to increase this to 30% over about 30 years. As most of the land is in private ownership the schemes rely mainly on providing landowners with incentives to plant trees. However the forests contain areas of publicly accessible open land, and increasing public access is one of the objectives.
The table below lists the twelve forests. As some of them straddle county boundaries they are more conveniently listed by region and town or city.
ForestRegionCityAreaWebsite
Forest of AvonSouth WestBristol
Great North ForestNorth EastNewcastle
Great Western ForestSouth WestSwindon
Greenwood ForestEast MidlandsNottingham
Forest of Marston ValeEast of EnglandBedford
Forest of MerciaWest MidlandsBirmingham
Mersey ForestNorth WestLiverpool
Red Rose ForestNorth WestManchester
South Yorkshire ForestYorkshire and the HumberSheffield
Tees ForestNorth EastMiddlesbrough
Thames ChaseLondon and East of EnglandLondon
Watling ChaseEast of EnglandLondon