What is the North East Community Forest?
The North East Community Forest (NECF) was established in 2021 as part of England’s Community Forest network. It covers southern Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and the more urban parts of County Durham. Working with landowners, local authorities, businesses, schools, and communities, the NECF delivers woodland creation and habitat enhancement at landscape scale.
The Forest is far more than just trees. Our approach creates a mosaic of woodlands, trees, hedgerows, grasslands and accessible green spaces designed to strengthen ecological networks, improve climate resilience and reconnect people with nature.
What have we delivered for biodiversity since 2021?
Since inception, the NECF has delivered significant, measurable impact for nature recovery:
• 540 hectares of new woodland established
• 112 hectares of open space enhanced
• 516,918 trees planted
• 29,701 metres of new hedgerow created
• 554 sites planted across the region
To support the successful establishment of every project, we provide landowners with an ongoing maintenance and aftercare payment programme.
Through our Government-funded Trees for Climate programme, we have created 496 hectares of usable woodland habitat and helped establish an estimated 769 hectares of connected woodland network. Importantly, 226.5 hectares of planting has been targeted for natural flood management, demonstrating how biodiversity, water management and climate action can be delivered together.
Community engagement underpins long-term success. Since 2021, 6,161 volunteers have contributed 13,751 hours through 265 planting events, alongside the creation of 47 km of new footpaths. When communities value and access natural spaces, they are far more likely to protect and champion them.
Rewarding Landowners Through Natural Capital Payments
A key barrier to nature recovery is that landowners are often expected to deliver public environmental benefits without financial return. The NECF Natural Capital Payment Scheme addresses this by financially rewarding farmers and land managers for creating and maintaining new habitats including woodlands and associated open space that deliver public access, biodiversity, natural flood management, air, noise, and urban heat mitigation. By aligning environmental outcomes with income, the scheme makes restoration economically viable and helps unlock landscape-scale change across the region.
Partnership with Northumberland Wildlife Trust
Partnership working has been central to accelerating biodiversity delivery. Collaboration with Northumberland Wildlife Trust (alongside other deliver partners) has ensured woodland creation aligns with wider nature recovery priorities, including habitat connectivity and support for priority species.
The Trust has been instrumental in supporting community outreach, including volunteer tree planting and aftercare events, helping to instil long-term stewardship. It also brings deep ecological expertise and practical land management experience. By working together, we ensure new woodlands are not isolated blocks of planting but part of a functioning ecological network that strengthens existing habitats and supports wildlife movement.
This partnership approach has effectively turbocharged delivery, combining funding, technical knowledge, and shared ambition to achieve more collectively than we could alone.
Delivering Our Long-Term Vision
Our ambitions are set out in our approved Forest Plan 2025–2050 and forthcoming Delivery Plan 2025–2030. These documents provide the strategic framework to guide growth and ensure measurable outcomes for nature, climate, and people. They set ambitious targets for woodland creation, habitat connectivity, and engagement, all underpinned by our core principle: “the right tree in the right place.” This mantra ensures woodland creation enhances, rather than replaces valuable habitats, supports priority species, strengthens ecological networks, and respects local landscape character.
Our work is vital because North East England has low and uneven tree canopy cover, creating neighbourhood inequalities and leaving habitats fragmented with biodiversity under pressure. The Forest Plan responds by highlighting the urgent need to expand and connect woodlands where the need is greatest, build climate‑resilient landscapes, and improve access to high‑quality green space for almost two million people.
By combining long-term vision with practical delivery planning, the NECF is well positioned to scale up impact, accelerate biodiversity recovery and create a resilient, nature-rich North East England for generations to come.