Project launched to triple area of UK’s temperate rainforest

Temperate rainforests offer a unique and biodiverse habitat

(Image credit: Steve Taylor ARPS/Alamy Stock Photo)

published 11 May 2023

A veteran of the war in Afghanistan who owns one of the remaining tracts of temperate rainforest in Britain has set up a charity to support the unique and biodiverse habitat. The Thousand Year Trust will work with landowners, farmers and charities to triple the area of temperate rainforest growing across the UK from the 330,000 acres believed currently to exist, to a million acres over the next 30 years. The charity was established by Merlin Hanbury-Tenison, who is rewilding his 300-acre family farm on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, and aiming to restore its ancient woodland.

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