In a recent article, Sophie Armour of the University of Sheffield argues that sheep farmers can profit by repurposing their pasture as woodland. Most sheep pasture in the U.K. is barely profitable without a government subsidy, while woodland owners can join a scheme such as Forest Carbon and make a profit from selling carbon credits. The current UK market price for a carbon credit (saving 1 tonne of CO2 from entering the atmosphere) is £15. This price is likely to rise as the environment moves its way up the political agenda.
The government will also refund up to 80% of the cost of planting trees in England, so all that farmers need to get started is a willing team of volunteers to do the planting. This is where woodsforthetrees.org comes in. If you are a sheep farmer in England and you are considering converting some of your pasture land to woodland, please contact us to set up a tree-planting project.