About Us
The National Forest covers 200 square miles across Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire. In 2025, the National Forest Charity, marked its 30th anniversary, having been established in the early 1990s with a bold vision to bring the benefits of trees, woodland and multi-use forestry to lowland England, where thousands of people live and work.
With no formal landscape designation, the National Forest is one of the UK’s earliest and most ambitious landscape-scale regeneration initiatives. It provides clear evidence of how trees and woodland can drive long-term environmental, social and economic renewal, and how nature-based investment can transform places and communities in the face of a changing climate.
This is a landscape where people live and work alongside nature, and a model that is already inspiring new forests elsewhere in the UK. It is reimagining how forests look and function in a modern Britain and provides a strong example of how national tree planting and nature recovery commitments are delivered on the ground.
Since 1991, 10 million trees have been planted and more than 8,000 hectares of land transformed. Forest cover has increased from around six per cent in the early 1990s to approaching 26 per cent, with a long-term ambition to reach 33 per cent. The National Forest Charity has worked closely with farmers and landowners throughout this period, with farmers and private landowners accounting for most of the forest creation grant applicants.
The Forest has delivered significant gains for biodiversity, including increases in species richness and abundance. Notable milestones include the return of the purple emperor butterfly for the first time in nearly 200 years and the reintroduction of dormice, a UK priority species that had been extinct in Derbyshire for more than a century.
The National Forest is also an important driver of economic and social regeneration. The visitor economy has grown by around 30 per cent in recent years, with more than 8.7 million visitors annually and around 5,000 tourism-related jobs supported. Education and community engagement are central to its success, with more than 85 per cent of schools undertaking regular outdoor learning and over 70 volunteer groups actively managing woodlands across the Forest.
Press releases
National Forest celebrates tourism champions leading greener future
Businesses helping shape a more regenerative future for tourism were celebrated as the National Forest unveiled its Transformative Tourism... read more
22.05.2026 • By The National Forest
