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Trees and woodlands

Trees and woodlands

London is the one of the world’s largest urban forests, containing an estimated 8.4 million trees in public and private spaces.

An urban forest is all the trees and woodlands in urban areas – whether owned by private landowners, institutions or local authorities. The urban forest includes trees in parks and streets, ancient and secondary woodlands, and copses, scrub and hedgerows along railway lines, rivers and canals. A fifth of London’s urban forest stands within private gardens, making Londoners the custodians of a significant proportion of London’s trees. 

London's trees are estimated to provide more than £133 million worth of benefits annually. Trees and woodlands provide clear benefits for local economies, local environments, and local people. They are a very valuable part of London's ‘green infrastructure’. 

Our aim: increasing London's tree canopy cover

London's urban forest is recognised for its environmental, social and economic value. These include wildlife habitat, improved air quality, shade and cooling, reduced flooding and significant health and wellbeing benefits for Londoners.

Increasing the capital's tree canopy is at the heart of the Mayor's vision to help make London greener, cleaner, more welcoming and more resilient.

  • The Mayor has a target in the London Environment Strategy to increase tree cover by 10 per cent of current levels by 2050.

  • The Mayor of London set an ambition in his Environment Strategy to create at least 200 hectares of species-rich woodland by 2050.

  • The London Plan provides a policy framework which encourages the protection and maintenance of trees and the planting of new trees and woodlands.

  • Since May 2016 the Mayor has funded the planting of more than 620,000 trees across London.

What we are doing for London’s trees and woodlands

Between 2022 and 2025, the Mayor of London invested more than £4m in a tree planting programme to protect and future-proof London in response to the catastrophic impacts of climate change. 

The Trees for London programme targeted areas where there are low numbers of existing trees and where Londoners are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Since 2016 the Mayor has funded more than 270,000 free trees for Londoners, including almost 80,000 trees in a single weekend during the 2019 National Tree Week.

Between 2022 and 2025 the Mayor worked with The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) I Dig Trees project to give away nearly 150,000 free trees to community and faith groups, housing associations and schools as well as providing free training will be provided from TCV on how to successfully plant and care for trees.

The Mayor's Green and Resilient Spaces Fund supported the creation of 50 ha of publicly accessible woodland in Enfield Chase, adding to and extending the woodland created previously with the support of the Mayor.

In 2020, the Mayor awarded £1.2 million from the Greener City Fund to help create two new accessible woodlands in London's Green Belt. Together these woodlands span 85 hectares. Over 120,000 trees were planted between autumn 2020 and spring 2022. The woodlands are:

  • Enfield Chase Restoration, where London Borough of Enfield is working in partnership with Thames 21 to restore the formerly wooded Enfield Chase area to create 60 hectares of accessible woodland, including improvements to 3km of walking and cycling routes to provide access for local communities.
  • Hainault Forest Extension in Havering, where Woodland Trust secured new land to extend Hainault Forest, creating a wildlife corridor between the forest and Hainault Country Park, and enabling public access to previously private green space.

The Mayor provided match funding to the Heritage Lottery Funded Great North Wood project in South London, led by London Wildlife Trust.

We have awarded almost £1.5 million since 2017 to more than 80 community projects to plant almost 100,000 trees. All of these projects can be found on our Greener City map. Find out more about:

Tree planting projects continue to be supported through the Grow Back Greener fund, which had rounds in 2020 and 2021 and 2022.

See our Green Roots Fund page for current and forthcoming grant funding opportunities.

The Mayor, working in partnership with London boroughs secured two large grants from the government's Urban Tree Challenge Fund to support street tree planting. The Mayor also provided funding to match these government grants and a further round in 2023-25, making the scheme easier for boroughs to access.

  • over £2 million to plant almost 7,000 street trees across 20 boroughs between January 2020 and March 2021. The trees were targeted in areas of low canopy cover. Find out more about street trees in 2020.
  • over £3 million to plant almost 8,000 street trees between November 2021 and March 2023. The trees were targeted in areas of low canopy cover and high deprivation.

We host the London Tree and Woodland Awards in partnership with the Forestry Commission to recognise projects and people who have made leading contributions to maintaining and improving London’s trees and woodlands.

Find out more about tree planting programmes before May 2016.

London Urban Forest Partnership

The London Urban Forest Partnership collaborates to help protect London's trees and woodlands and encourage individual Londoners, businesses and organisations to manage the urban forest better and plant more trees.

The Partnership coordinates delivery of the London Urban Forest Plan (LUFP) and the associated LUFP 2025, which sets out the goals and priority actions for the capital’s urban forest.

London Urban Forest Resource Hub

The London Urban Forest Resource Hub brings together information and data on London’s urban forest to improve the sharing of good practice, signpost opportunities and demonstrate the range of activities currently taking place to protect, enhance and expand London’s urban forest.

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