Plymouth and South Devon forest project receives ‘crucial’ £7.3million funding boost

Plymouth and South Devon Community Forest have this week confirmed a further £7.3 million in Government funding to continue tree planting and woodland creation across the region.

New funding will support the project beyond its original 2025 deadline under the Government’s ‘Trees for Climate’ programme. 

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This latest allocation will allow work to continue until a further national funding announcement is made later this year.

Since launching in 2020, the Community Forest has planted around 59,000 trees in Plymouth and approximately 390,000 across Plymouth and South Devon as a whole.

Councillor Tom Briars-Delve, Cabinet Member for the Environment and Climate Change at Plymouth City Council, said the funding would help build on progress already made.

“I’m so proud of the community forest and all that it has managed to achieve in such a short space of time,” he said. 

“This money will be crucial in helping to further establish the forest and carry on the fantastic work across the region.”

The Community Forest stretches from the South Devon coast, across Plymouth and towards Dartmoor National Park. 

By April 2026, a further 250 hectares of land are expected to be planted, creating a mix of orchards, hedgerows, areas of natural regeneration, native broadleaf woodland and productive woodland.

Unlike a traditional forest located in a single area, the project covers a wide and varied landscape. 

It includes community and private woodland, urban tree planting, wooded habitat corridors and hedgerows across an area of more than 140,000 hectares.

Although much of the new funding will support rural planting schemes in West Devon and around the fringes of Dartmoor, Plymouth City Council receives the money as the acting accountable body for the project. 

Environmental and community benefits ‘will be felt across the wider region’ according to the council.

The scheme is part of a broader Government-backed effort to increase tree coverage and improve climate resilience. 

Organisers say the work supports biodiversity, carbon capture and improved access to green spaces for local communities.

Further details about the next phase of funding are expected later this year.