Forest Holidays raises over £100,000 for the National Forest

Forest News

30/09/21

Our partnership with the National Forest began in 2016, with shared values in forest creation, communities and tourism – they’re a natural fit for us. We’ve raised funds for the Forest by inviting guests to make a donation when booking their holiday. So, over £100,000 has been donated – all thanks to you.

During our five-year partnership, the donations raised by Forest Holidays have contributed towards forest creation and community engagement programmes including, the planting of 370,000 more trees in the National Forest. Forest Holidays guest donations together with support from regular donors and grant funders have helped to engage 6.5 times more schools in regular outdoor learning in 2021 compared to 2017. All these are vital steps towards creating a future where nature, society and the economy can all work together.

Since the National Forest’s creation, they have made great progress: they have reached their 9 millionth tree, have increased forest cover from 6% to 22%, transforming in total 8,000 hectares of land into wildlife-friendly habitats. Over half a million attendees have had fun in the woods through environmental education sessions, 84% of National Forest woodlands are in active management, greatly supported by 56 community volunteer groups across the Forest, and 100 kilometres of hedgerows and 120 wildlife ponds have been created.

Over the years, we have also supported National Forest with some conservation work. This has included our Support Centre planting trees at Cadborough Hill Wood in Derbyshire and helping to build bug hotels in Sarah’s Wood.

We’re delighted to have been able to work with the National Forest and to go some way to help to create a positive future for our forests.