Community Driven Treescapes

Event Information

Local communities can play a key role in creating new areas of woodland, orchard, hedgerows and ornamental trees.  Are there neglected and underused green spaces near you with the potential to be transformed? 

How about other green spaces that could be enhanced through the addition of carefully selected trees? 

Hear from London Tree Ring Director Phil Paulo how local communities can get involved in the project and why local knowledge around how best to sensitively grow tree canopy cover in a way that maximises the benefits for people as well as nature is so important. 

Right tree, right place principles are at the core of this initiative! And lots of support is available from London Tree Ring Steering Group partners. Phil will be joined by Christoph Warrack, CEO, and Mark Hilleard, Head of Projects, at Common. who will explain how Common works with local communities across the UK to take things to the next level and buy and manage land for nature recovery, protecting green sites for current and future generations.

There will be a Q&A at the end. 

Itinerary

1.00pm - 1.20pm - Phil Paulo - London Tree Ring Director

Will be providing an overview of the London Tree Ring Project and how local communities can get involved and considerations for right tree right place within the capital.

1.20pm - 1.40pm - Mark Hilleard & Christoph Warrack - Common

Mark Hilleard Head of Projects at Common Nature Recovery, will provide an overview of how Common works with local communities across the UK to help them buy and manage land for nature recovery, protecting them for current and future generations. He will be joined by Christoph Warrack CEO of Common.

Q&A - We will then have around 20 minutes at the end for a Q&A.

London Tree Ring

We have a 25-year vision to create a London Tree Ring around our capital for nature, the planet and people.
There are three linked elements to the London Tree Ring vision:

1. Creating a ring of trees around the capital – a kind of M25 for nature linking existing woodland with the best woodland creation opportunity sites. The proposed route has a length of over 200km (source Greenspace Information for Greater London – the capital’s green records centre).  There will be particular focus on transforming former landfill and gravel extraction sites, and sites that have been fenced off and fly tipped along the route.  Key opportunities for action include connecting Epping to Hainault Forest and on to Thames Chase Community Forest in the north and linking remnants of the Great North Wood in the south.

2. Greening key radial walking and cycling routes. Connecting this outer ring of trees to central London will encourage active travel in a very positive way. Opportunities for tree planting include along the six new radial routes featured in London’s Leisure Walking Plan.

3. Linking the currently most green-deprived areas to green routes and London’s countryside – giving priority to reaching areas where high indicators of multiple deprivation combine with green deprivation. This will be done through greening routes connecting these areas to both the outer ring of trees and key radial walking and cycling ways incorporating greened ‘School Streets’ where possible. It is estimated in the London Leisure Walking Plan there would be £1.7bn savings to the NHS in treatment costs over 25 years if every Londoner walked for 20 minutes each day.

Contributors

Phil Paulo

Phil is the newly appointed Director of the London Tree Ring Initiative at CPRE London and comes with a wealth of experience gained over a 30-year career in urban nature conservation. Having worked for some of the UKs best known conservation organisations, including London Wildlife Trust, TCV, Groundwork, The Tree Council and the National Parks movement Phil brings a passion for mobilising local communities to take positive action to address the impacts of climate change and the threat of UK habitats and biodiversity decline.

Mark Hilleard

A passionate belief in the environmental, economic and social benefits well managed woodlands bring to communities has shaped Mark’s personal and professional life. Since graduating from Bangor University with a BSc in Conservation and Forest Ecosystems, he has worked a wide range of forestry and land use roles both in the public and private sector. From managing national pest and disease outbreaks and their impact on trade in government, to supervising large woodland creation projects as a forest manager.

As Head of Projects at Common, Mark works directly with communities to deliver projects on the ground. His aim is to improve communication and collaboration between different land use sectors to more effectively to respond to the climate crisis through community ownership.

Christoph Warrack

Christoph builds his work at Common on a career helping communities to advance their wellbeing, skills, and pathways. After 11 years in the film industry, he founded Open Cinema, and later Airbase and B Foundry, and is an advisor to Moving Beyond. Christoph has presented on social innovation at international conferences and universities, is a TEDx speaker, and a mentor at the Imperial College cleantech accelerator. He is a trustee of his children’s school, and is a volunteer river guardian for the Western Sussex Rivers Trust. His service is gathering communities, organisations, and nature, and empowering participants to use their unique capabilities to restore our natural world.

Location: This is an on-line webinar.