Many people, concerned citizens with good intentions to plant trees and tackle the climate crisis, often encounter problems when attempting to access available government funding to help them fund their green goals. These problems vary from significant, seemingly insurmountable bureaucracy to frustrating, overly complicated application processes. Both can lead people with very good intentions to forget the whole thing or to look for other ways to make a difference in significantly smaller ways as they haven’t managed to secure funding.
Protect Earth wants as many people as possible to engage with greenspace, reaping the benefits of a better-balanced environment with more robust biodiversity, whether planting trees to create woodlands or creating hedgerows or wildflower meadows. There are lots of ways in which we can help you achieve your green goal. With some tree planting projects, we can often just circumnavigate the red tape completely and find a way to make your project a reality very quickly. We funded and facilitated the planting of nearly 35,000 trees in 2023/24. But all the governments of the UK (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales) have allocated public money to increase tree planting and woodland creation – so why not use that where possible? It is money you paid in tax, after all.
Bureaucracy: the real threat to biodiversity
Of course, there needs to be procedures and checks before taxpayers’ money is handed out. Still, all government woodland creation grant schemes in the UK (woodland creation policy is a devolved issue) have been described in practice as ‘disincentives to tree planting’, such is their complexity. Firstly, if you want to receive any grant money for land you own, that land must be registered with the relevant government’s rural payments agency. Just this initial hurdle can cause many to fall and give up. ‘Bureaucracy never ceases to amaze,’ said one would-be tree planter at this point.
Then, the environmental checks and serious form-filling really begin. I recently forwarded an English Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) application pack from the relevant .gov website to another landowner. “Blimey! Daunting – is the word of choice, I’d say,” came the reply soon after. “Do they want us to plant trees or not?” With determination, you will build up some momentum for the application. But then find, months can go by as this protracted process stumbles through a maze of pedantic box-ticking exercises deemed necessary by officious stakeholders.
There are calls from many who work in the sector, both within and outside government, to streamline and simplify the entire process in order to meet tree planting targets. In the meantime, the government does offer some help. They may suggest an initial site visit to your land or a Zoom call. But when it comes to completing the application – it’s basically up to you. Aren’t there Woodland Creation Officers to help with this? Yes, but they will charge the going rate for their services. But aren’t there Woodland Creation Planning Grants to pay for these people? Yes, but the planning grant applications are almost as involved as the main applications. And it isn’t just financing the project that is overly laboured. Bureaucracy can arise (especially on larger projects) with permissions for land use change or impacts on other habitats requiring further environmental checks or surveys. Then there’s the woodland design, tree species selection, infrastructure planning, tree procurement and planters to find, and it goes on and on and on and on.
How Protect Earth can aid you in completing your own application to fulfil your green dreams
As a small charity, we don’t have the resources to complete every Woodland Creation Grant or EWCO application sent our way from start to finish.
But if you’ve come this far…maybe you’re willing to come a little further. We can guide you through the process, help you understand how to unlock the application and proceed to the next level, point you in the right direction, and advise you. We can offer a halfway house between you tackling the application completely alone (becoming frustrated and potentially abandoning the project and your goals) or paying someone to complete the entire process for you (where potentially you somewhat lose control of your project, as well as the satisfaction of finishing what you set out to achieve).
To sum up
Government grant applications require attending classes that haven’t been created - that’s how complex and tedious they are. We understand that some requirements and surveys were introduced to ensure money and permission genuinely go to worthwhile projects. On the other hand, these same officials also know that those forms and the resolve and patience required to move through the process are barriers for many who want to boost biodiversity throughout the UK.
Cut Through Red Tape and Get Your Trees Planted
Ready to plant trees but stuck in the red tape? Don’t let bureaucracy stop your green goals! Protect Earth is here to guide you through the maze of government grants like EWCO and others. Whether you need a nudge in the right direction or full support, we’ll help you unlock the funding and get those trees in the ground. Let’s boost biodiversity together—get in touch with us today!
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It’s views like this that should be awaiting you - not nights spent descending into hopelessness as you drudge through a grant application form. [/caption]