Guidance

Planning new woodland - Section 4: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Updated 10 December 2024

Applies to England

• Publication for Northern Ireland
• Publication for Scotland
• Publication for Wales

Go back to Section 3: Developing your woodland creation plan.

Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) ensure that woodland creation proposals undergo an appropriate level of environmental and regulatory due diligence, meet good practice requirements, such as UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) and deliver government policies.

Process overview: EIAs

Stage 1

1). Using your final woodland creation plan, check the EIA afforestation thresholds table.

2). Decide your next step, either:

     a). Apply for grant funding to create your new woodland, this usually engages the EIA process (check first).

     b). Submit an EIA enquiry form and supporting evidence to notify us or to ask for our opinion.

Forestry Commission action: seek advice or information and/or undertake consultation, where required. This will result in an EIA decision, either:

• consent required
• consent not required: the outcome for the majority of well evidenced and designed proposals

Stage 2

1). You hold a scoping meeting.

2). You produce Environmental Statement (ES). Using your final plan, scoping meeting feedback and Forestry Commission opinion reasons.

3). Submit application for consent, including your ES and other supporting documents.

Forestry Commission action: share ES with statutory consultees and any other public authorities with an interest in the project.

4). You advertise ES in agreed newspapers and by other means.

Forestry Commission action: EIA decision will either be:

• consent refused
• consent granted with conditions

Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs)

We (the Forestry Commission) are the responsible body for administering the Environmental Impact Assessment (Forestry) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999 (often referred to as ‘the EIA regs’). These regulations cover projects for afforestation (new woodland creation), deforestation, and creating forest roads and quarries.

This guide is an overview of the EIA process for woodland creation. We strongly recommend that you read more at Environmental Impact Assessments for woodland.

If you are applying for a grant administered in part or in full by the Forestry Commission then the EIA application will be incorporated into your grant application form, and you will receive a ‘Stage 1’ EIA decision at the same time your grant application is determined. You do not need to submit a separate EIA form for ‘Stage 1’ EIA screening if you are applying for a Forestry Commission woodland creation grant.

Even if you are not applying for an afforestation grant, there are still some instances when you may not need to submit an EIA form:

• in relation to afforestation proposals, our definition of a forest or woodland means that woodland creation schemes smaller than 0.5 hectares in size are exempt and do not require an EIA application
• the regulations create a presumption that, for some smaller scale projects, the ‘Stage 1’ EIA decision will be that your woodland creation proposal does not need a ‘Stage 2’ EIA application for consent. For these projects, you may, at your own risk, decide not to apply for a ‘Stage 1’ EIA decision. See the thresholds table for which projects this applies to

For projects where you apply for a ’Stage 1’ EIA decision, we will decide whether your proposal is likely to have a significant effect on the environment or not. You should wait for our decision before starting any work. Projects that are likely to have a significant effect will require our consent, via the ‘Stage 2’ EIA application process, before you can begin any work.

There are 3 different types of ‘Stage 1’ EIA application:

1. Basic notification.
2. Full notification.
3. Application for opinion.

The type of ‘Stage 1’ forestry EIA application you must make is determined by the project size and land sensitivity, often referred to as ‘the thresholds’. While you must identify which application type you are making, all 3 application types use the same application form.

The type of application determines the length of time that the Forestry Commission has to make a ‘Stage 1’ decision (when not submitted as part of a grant application). Remember that if you are applying for a woodland creation grant administered in part or in full by the Forestry Commission, you will not normally be required to submit a separate EIA application, as the EIA element will be included in the grant application process.

If you are intending to apply for a Woodland Creation Planning Grant (WCPG), you must not apply for a (‘Stage 1’ or ‘Stage 2’) EIA decision until you have received payment for the final stage of that grant.

Having a woodland creation design plan already prepared (whether funded by WCPG or not) will substantially reduce the number of questions that you need to answer when later completing an EIA afforestation application form (or grant application form).

Thresholds for EIA forestry projects

Information about the various EIA project thresholds can be found on EIA thresholds. The thresholds in the following table are most relevant to applicants applying for a non-grant funded EIA decision, as all our grant application forms incorporate the necessary EIA questions as part of the grant application process.

Afforestation thresholds table

Project size (hectares/ha)	Land sensitivity	Is there a presumption against likely significant effect?	If I don’t submit a ‘Stage 1’ EIA application, what’s the risk?	Type of ‘Stage 1’ EIA application
Less than 0.5 ha	Anywhere	Yes	No risk (such proposals are not deemed to be ‘afforestation’)	Application for opinion
Between 0.5 to 2 ha	Any part of the proposal is in a ‘sensitive area’ that is not a National Park or AONB	No	High risk	Application for opinion
Between 0.5 to 2 ha	Any part of the proposal is in a National Park or AONB but no other sensitive area, OR no part of the proposal is in a ‘sensitive area’	Yes	Low risk	Application for opinion
Between 2 to 5 ha	Any part of the proposal is in a ‘sensitive area	No	High risk	Application for opinion
Between 2 to 5 ha	No part of the proposal is in a ‘sensitive area’	Yes	Mandatory requirement (you must submit a ‘Stage 1’ application)	Basic notification
Between 5 to 50 ha	The entire proposal is in a ‘low risk area’	Yes	Mandatory requirement (you must submit a ‘Stage 1’ application)	Full notification
Between 5 to 50 ha	Any part of the proposal is outside a ‘low risk area’	No	High risk	Application for opinion
Over 50 ha	Anywhere	No	High risk	Application for opinion

To apply these thresholds for afforestation, the total area of your woodland creation proposal must be added to that of other nearby (within 500 metres) recent woodland creation projects (those completed within the past 5 years, including on other people’s land). We will consider the combined environmental impact of all new woodland within and around your proposal area.

The list below describes the designations and characteristics that make land sensitive to woodland creation for the purposes of the EIA regulations. You can check whether your proposal is in an EIA low risk (2017) mapped area and/or in a low, medium or high sensitivity area for woodland creation using the Forestry Commission map browser and Land Information Search and reviewing the relevant datasets.

The EIA low risk map (2017) is comprised of the sensitivities as detailed:

Sensitive land

Sensitive land contains one or more of the following designations:

• Special Area of Conservation / Special Protection Area
• Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
• Local Nature Reserve
• National Nature Reserve
• National Park
• Ramsar site
• Scheduled Monuments
• Site of Special Scientific Interest
• The Broads
• World Heritage Sites

Medium sensitivity land

Medium sensitivity land contains none of the sensitive features above and at least one of the following characteristics:

• deep peat
• RSPB Important Bird Area
• Acid Vulnerable Catchments
• Nature Reserve
• Higher Level Stewardship schemes
• Agricultural Land Classification: Class 1, 2 and 3a
• Priority Habitats (s.41 Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006)
• registered battlefield
• registered park or garden

Low risk land

Low risk land contains none of the above designations or characteristics (though due to the incompleteness of national datasets it is important that you undertake further Forestry project checks, and importantly, that you carry out a site visit to survey for features of interest on or near the land that may be affected by tree planting.

Land sensitivity mapping for woodland creation

We produced low, medium and high sensitivity maps to account for other sensitivities not included in the EIA low risk map (2017). These sensitivities include high and medium sensitivity areas for breeding wader zonal mapping, areas of peat soils, ridge and furrow, wood pasture and parkland, and non Section-41 priority habitats.

A decision support framework for peatland protection, addressing the establishment of new woodland and re-establishment of existing woodland on peatland in England has been published (July 2023). This provides more detail on the protection of the peatland resource. As a consequence, when making our EIA and grant funding decisions, we will consider all peaty soils - not just deep peat - against this framework.

The ‘Woodland Creation Sensitivity Map’ layers available online will be updated regularly to reflect policy changes, and to direct proposers to the most appropriate sites for woodland creation. This data will be considered as part of the EIA process, but will not determine the EIA threshold that applies to your project.

National datasets can be inaccurate when applied to the field level and are not a substitute for conducting a ‘walk over’ survey and recording results of features of interest you may find.

EIA regulations and woodland creation

Most of the information we need to make a ‘Stage 1’ EIA decision on your proposal, and whether it requires a separate ‘Stage 2’ EIA application, is asked for on your Forestry Commission administered grant application form, or if you are not seeking grant aid, on your EIA enquiry form.

If you are applying for a grant scheme that is not administered by us, you may need to submit a separate ‘Stage 1’ EIA application to us for our decision.

It is your responsibility to gather relevant environmental information as evidence to support your application. We need to see evidence that you have engaged with local stakeholders and interest groups, and that evidence from any field surveys or searches for constraints or features that may be affected by the woodland creation proposal have been used to inform the design of the proposal.

Once your application and supporting evidence is submitted, we have set timescales in which to give you a decision on EIA. Providing an issues log showing evidence of stakeholder engagement and mitigation responses will help your EIA enquiry to be processed more swiftly.

If your project is considered likely to have a significant impact to the environment, an ES, as part of your ‘Stage 2’ EIA application, will be required.

When can you start planting?

If you are not applying for grants to create your woodland, and if either we have told you at EIA ‘Stage 1’ that EIA consent ‘Stage 2’ is not required, or you are choosing not to apply for ‘stage 1’, you can start planting your woodland. You should expect to receive a decision within either 28 or 42 days, depending on the ‘Stage 1’ EIA decision type, although this may take longer if we require more information than was included in your application.

If you apply for one of our grant schemes, you can expect to receive our ‘Stage 1’ EIA decision at the same time that you hear back about your grant application. Read more on EIA timescales.

If we have told you that our consent is required at ‘Stage 1’, you will need to apply for ‘Stage 2’, which will involve the production of an ES before getting a decision on whether consent will be given. You must not begin any work until you have received our consent in writing. If you choose not to continue with your project, you do not need to apply for ‘Stage 2’ EIA consent.

If you are applying for grant support, you must not begin any work on the site until you have accepted in writing our grant agreement offer. Any items you order before you have a grant agreement is at your own risk, and may contravene grant rules.

You cannot register your project with the Woodland Carbon Code if any work has begun on site, including fencing or soil cultivation. However, third party validation of your project must take place within 3 years of the date of registration.

Tree planting, permitted development and planning permission

We are only responsible for administering the Forestry EIA regulations.

Other areas of EIA regulation, such as the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 (which deal with built development projects such as roads, bridges and buildings), are administered by local planning authorities. In some situations, compensatory planting may be proposed as part of the mitigation for a development scheme that requires full planning permission. In these situations, whilst the planning EIA will still most likely be conducted by the local planning authority, developers are encouraged to use the approach described in Section 2: Preparing to plan (scoping and survey) and Section 3: Developing your woodland creation plan, to show that the compensatory planting plan has been properly assessed and that the proposals comply with the UKFS.

If you are not sure which body should be conducting the EIA, please ask either the local planning authority or your Forestry Commission Woodland Officer for advice.

Our formal consultation processes

We sometimes need to seek statutory or technical advice or information from other public bodies on the potential impact from a woodland creation proposal, either as part of the EIA regulations process, or as part of the grant approval process. We call this consultation.

For grants and ‘Stage 1’ EIA applications, we will only do this where other statutory bodies have an interest in the impact of your proposal, or where their advice or consent is required.

The Public Register for consultation

If you are applying for grant funding for a proposal that is 0.5 hectares or more, or if your proposal falls into the full notification category under the EIA thresholds, then we must notify the public.

We do this by placing relevant proposals on the Public Register for consultation. During the consultation period, anyone can comment on the proposals in respect of UKFS requirements and guidelines.

We then review the responses made on the Public Register for consultation and consider those which have raised a concern about UKFS compliance. This may lead to your proposal having to be amended, or the design changed, so that the concerns raised via the Public Register are addressed. You will need to reflect these changes in an updated issues log.

If your woodland creation proposal is both a grant application and in need of consultation for the EIA full notification element, we will try to satisfy both consultation requirements at the same time, meaning that in most cases the proposal will only be published once on the Public Register for consultation.

Consulting on Environmental Statements (Stage 2)

Where significant issues or impacts are identified with the proposal at ‘Stage 1’, then applicants will be required to complete ‘Stage 2’ of the EIA process, which will involve creating an ES as part of an application for EIA consent. We will tell you if this is the case if you have applied for a ‘Stage 1’ decision.

You will usually not require a ‘Stage 2’ EIA decision, particularly if you show in your ‘Stage 1’ EIA application (or Forestry Commission grant funding application, if relevant) that you have undertaken sufficient environmental due diligence.

If you proposal needs to go through ‘Stage 2’ of the EIA process to gain our consent, then formal consultation will be required on the ES. You will need to place adverts in local newspapers to tell the public where they can view your EIA application for consent, the woodland creation proposal and ES. Consultation will last for 30 days and we will guide you through the process.

We are also required to formally consult with Natural England, the Environment Agency and the relevant local authority, as well as any other interested public bodies. These statutory bodies have 4 weeks to consider the proposal and provide comment to us.

Publishing decisions

We publish all EIA and grant funding decisions on the Public Register for decisions for a period of 4 weeks. Note that this is different to the Public Register for consultation, and it is not an opportunity for further consultation.

The EIA process

This section gives a 3-point guide to taking your woodland creation proposal through the EIA process. The work you have already done to design your new woodland should give you a faster and easier route to an EIA decision.

Read more on Environmental Impact Assessments for woodland.

Point 1: check the EIA afforestation thresholds table

The size and location of your proposal will determine whether your ‘Stage 1’ EIA afforestation enquiry will be treated as ‘basic’ or ‘full notification’, or an ‘application for an opinion’.

See the afforestation thresholds table to determine what EIA application type your application will be treated as. You will need to confirm this information on your application form, and it will be used to determine what our timescales are for providing an EIA decision. However, you should be reassured that there is only one ‘Stage 1’ EIA application form for afforestation, regardless of application type. The thresholds will also inform your decision as to whether you want or need to submit a ‘Stage 1’ EIA application at all.

Note that statutory timescales for a decision only apply to non-grant funded (stand-alone) applications. EIA decisions which are to be made as part of a grant application are given at the point that a grant offer is ready to be made. Read more on EIA timescales.

Point 2: submit your woodland creation proposal and ‘Stage 1’ EIA application

If you are applying to us for grant funding, you do not need to submit a separate EIA enquiry form, as it will have already have been incorporated into your grant application form. The EIA decision will be given at the point that a grant offer is ready to be made.

If you are not applying to us for grant funding for a proposal which requires a ‘Stage 1’ EIA decision, you should complete a standalone EIA enquiry form for afforestation. Your woodland creation plan should be used to support this enquiry. If you are unsure whether your proposal will require an EIA decision, or whether you need to submit a standalone EIA afforestation application form, read Environmental Impact Assessments for woodland or ask your Woodland Officer.

You can apply for a standalone EIA enquiry at any time, but should not do so if you have applied, or are about to apply, for a grant on the site (where the grant application process includes the EIA process).

To ensure we can make a ‘Stage 1’ decision, you must submit enough information and evidence for us to assess the proposal. Completing all parts of the standalone EIA enquiry form (or grant application, where appropriate) with relevant information, sharing evidence gathered to support the conclusions that you have reached, and sharing all parts of your woodland creation plan will provide much of the required information.

Most well-evidenced and well-designed woodland creation proposals that take sensible measures to protect the environment will not normally require a ‘Stage 2’ EIA application and Point 3 on the next page will therefore not apply.

Point 3: make a ‘Stage 2’ EIA application (where required)

If we decide at ‘Stage 1’ that your proposal is likely to have a significant effect on the environment, you must make a ‘Stage 2’ EIA application for our consent. Your application for consent will need to include an ES, the scope of which will need to be explored before you draft and submit it.

In most cases, we strongly advise applicants to ask, through the ‘Stage 1’ EIA process, if a ‘Stage 2’ application for consent will be required before formally seeking our consent. However, if you are certain that an application for consent is required, it is possible to apply for consent without first completing a ‘Stage 1’ application.

Your Woodland Officer will help you to identify key stakeholders and statutory bodies who may need to be involved in providing information that will help the preparation of an ES, which is an essential element of a ‘Stage 2’ application for consent.

You will be advised to hold a scoping meeting. This meeting between you, us, relevant statutory and local stakeholders, consultees and interested parties such as neighbours, will help to identify the issues that your Environmental Statement must address.

Using your final woodland creation plan, the feedback received during your scoping meeting, and the reasons given to you by us at ‘Stage 1’ that consent is required, you must prepare an Environmental Statement.

The purpose of the Environmental Statement is to provide us and other interested parties with a full understanding of the consequences of your proposal. Following the planning and design process explained in this guide, particularly producing the issues and risks log, and spatial and written plans, will make the preparation of the Environmental Statement much easier. You can reuse information already submitted to us or that is in your plan: you will not have to recreate the required evidence.

We have published guidance on EIA scoping and preparing an Environmental Statement.

You can now submit your application for consent to the Forestry Commission Admin Hub that covers your area.

Your ‘Stage 2’ EIA application for consent must include:

• a map showing the area where new woodland is proposed, and the extent of any planting, natural colonisation, constructions, works or operations – this should be a clear Ordnance Survey map at a scale of 1:10,000 or 1:2,500
• a description of the nature of the relevant project, using your woodland creation plan
• any other information that might be relevant, such as species maps, plans and photographs
• your Environmental Statement
• a copy of the publicity notice that you will place in newspapers (it should not actually be placed anywhere at this stage)

Once we are satisfied that your Environmental Statement addresses all the issues of concern identified at the scoping meeting, you must make a public notice. Place the public notice (advertisement) in local newspapers and/or electronically (we will confirm which). You are responsible for the cost of this notice. You must also make copies of your application for consent and your Environmental Statement available to the public in locations such as at the local library, post office or local Forestry Commission office. We can also suggest suitable public locations.

We will give details of your application to the appropriate consultees and statutory bodies, as well as the local authority with an interest in the application. These consultees are required to provide their comments to us within 30 days.

We will respond to your ‘Stage 2’ EIA application for consent with one of 3 possible decisions:

• consent granted subject to the standard conditions (that the work must be started within 5 years from the date of consent and finished no later than 10 years from the date of consent)
• consent granted subject to the standard conditions (above) plus additional bespoke conditions
• consent refused

After notifying you and other interested parties about our decision, we will advertise our decision in the same newspapers in which the notice of the application for consent was placed. We will be responsible for the cost of this notice.

Read more about the EIA process.

Funding opportunities and their interaction with EIA

Funding is available to help you with planning and implementing a woodland creation proposal.

Woodland creation grant offers change over time but can be broadly categorised as providing funding towards planning, establishment and maintenance, and to carbon sequestration. In all cases, public grant funding approval is based on compliance with UKFS relevant requirements and guidelines as a minimum, but every grant scheme has its own eligibility rules.

Where a site is eligible for funding towards planning a new woodland, any grant funded woodland creation plan must be completed and approved prior to engaging in the EIA process and usually prior to applying for establishment funding. You should check in advance the requirements, deadlines and timescales around any grant funding you intend to apply for, to ensure that they are compatible with your own project timescales.

Where a request for an EIA decision has not already been submitted separately, submission of our grant application forms will normally be taken to also be a request for an EIA decision, and the grant application will be assessed against the relevant EIA threshold and decision type. This means an EIA decision will not be given until the point a grant offer is ready to be made, ensuring that changes to a proposal for reason of grant rules are appropriately reflected in EIA decision making.

Funding for carbon sequestration has several independent time-related stages. If you wish to apply, you should start considering this while you are still planning your new woodland; it is a good idea to engage with this process before applying for establishment funding, and if using the Woodland Carbon Code you will need to register your project before work starts.

Summary:

We have specific responsibilities under the Environmental Impact Assessment (Forestry) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999 for ‘afforestation’ (woodland creation) proposals.

We will seek statutory or technical advice or information from other public bodies and formally consult with them, where required. We will also notify the public of woodland creation proposals that have applied for public funds via the Public Register for consultation. And we will publish and consult on details of Environmental Statements where our EIA consent is required.

Most well-evidenced and well-designed woodland creation proposals not require ‘Stage 2’ EIA consent.

A comprehensive woodland creation plan, proportionate to the scale and sensitivity of the site in question, can help us reach an EIA decision more quickly.

The woodland creation planning, EIA, and grant funding processes are separate from one another but interact. A grant application made to us for woodland creation and establishment will normally be taken as a request for us to give an EIA decision, unless this has already been done separately for the proposal in question.

Next: Section 5: Further advice.