Background to the report

Planting trees and restoring peatland help to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. This makes them important contributors towards achieving net zero by 2050. They can also tackle biodiversity loss and improve air quality and access to nature for recreation.

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To support the government’s long-term aims for the UK, Defra had targets for England of at least 7,500 hectares of annual tree planting and 35,000 hectares of peatland restoration from 2020-21 to 2024-25. Defra’s commitments were supported and funded by the Nature for Climate Fund programme, which had a total budget of £764 million up to March 2025.

Scope of the report

This study considers the extent to which the Nature for Climate Fund programme has met its objectives for both tree planting and peatland restoration, and what lessons can be taken from how Defra has delivered it. We examine:

  • how Defra structured the programme and what has been spent
  • to what extent the programme has achieved its objectives
  • what lessons can be learned from how Defra has managed the programme

Conclusions

The Nature for Climate Fund Programme successfully instigated a step change in tree planting and peatland restoration activities in England. However, it did not achieve its headline targets, in part because they were intentionally ambitious, and because key enablers such as sufficient capacity, clear guidance and sector skills took time to develop. The government’s future targets for tree planting and peatland restoration remain ambitious and require a further step change in activity if they are to be achieved.

In using the Programme as an opportunity to test different approaches, Defra has identified aspects that can encourage effective delivery. Defra and its delivery partners must apply this learning to maximise participation and increase delivery in future schemes. This includes identifying factors that can help leverage private investment for nature restoration, if Defra is to meet the government’s expectation that private finance will increasingly support these activities.

It will also be important for Defra to make further progress in measuring the beneficial outcomes that tree planting and peatland restoration are achieving to be able to assess and maximise the value for money of its future activities. This includes continuing to improve its monitoring of outcomes from specific investments, to inform decision-making around how it can best meet its environment and climate commitments and manage trade-offs with other demands on land use.

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Publication details

Press release

View press release (23 Mar 2026)

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