Correspondence

eAlert: 16 March 2022 - fifth Woodland Carbon Guarantee Auction

Published 7 April 2022

Applies to England

• Publication for Northern Ireland
• Publication for Scotland
• Publication for Wales

1. Our customer satisfaction survey

1.1 Please take a moment to complete our survey if we have sent you a link.

If you have received a decision from us for a grant or a licence, we have invited you to complete our customer survey in the decision letter. Please take this opportunity to comment on our performance so we can continue to improve our service. The survey is available for you to complete.

From results of recent surveys:

• You said you liked our staff and thought they were knowledgeable
• We have been working hard to increase our permanent staffing levels

2. Fifth Woodland Carbon Guarantee Auction dates announced

2.1 Farmers and land managers across England are encouraged to apply for the Woodland Carbon Guarantee by 11:59pm on 24 April, ahead of the fifth auction which will take place online between 9 and 15 May 2022.

The Woodland Carbon Guarantee is a Forestry Commission-administered £50 million scheme that aims to help accelerate woodland planting rates and permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Following an online auction process, successful bidders will be offered the option to sell woodland carbon in the form of Woodland Carbon Units - a financial value given to each tonne of carbon stored - to the government over 35 years at a guaranteed price protected against inflation. The scheme reflects the government’s confidence in the continued growth of markets for woodland carbon, as landowners will have a revenue stream in future from selling carbon on the domestic market.

This announcement follows the success of four previous auctions which have helped stimulate the creation of 2,650 hectares of new woodland specifically to help combat climate change.

Before applying for the Guarantee, land managers will need to have registered with the Woodland Carbon Code, which provides the tools and information required to forecast and verify the carbon they are capturing and can sell in future.

Sir William Worsley, Chair of the Forestry Commission said:

This pioneering scheme could be the perfect fit for many farmers and land managers looking for long-term income support for creating new woodland.

Now in its fifth stage, it is encouraging that this scheme has continued to grow in its success, resulting in the creation of 2,650 hectares of new woodland specifically to help combat climate change.

I strongly encourage anyone thinking about planting to sign up to the Woodland Carbon Code and submit their application to the Guarantee ahead of the application deadline on 24 April.

We are running a series of free webinars that will briefly describe the 5th Auction’s parameters and revisit the processes required for registration to the Woodland Carbon Code. To register please follow the below links:

• 29 March 10:00am until 11:00am
• 12 April 10:00am until 11:00am
• 20 April 11:00am until 12:00pm

Apply for the Woodland Carbon Guarantee

3. Delivering on the Environment Act: new targets announced and ambitious plans for nature recovery

3.1 Targets and Green Paper proposals will protect and enhance our natural world.

New, long-term environmental targets have been announced by the government today (16 March). The proposed targets are a cornerstone of the government’s Environment Act which passed into law in November last year. They will drive action by successive governments to protect and enhance our natural world. The proposed targets cover water, air quality and the diversity of our wildlife.

The proposed targets will now be subject to an eight week consultation period where government will seek the views of environment groups, local authorities and stakeholders.

The Environment Act put a key focus on driving forward nature’s recovery and the government is also setting out today new proposals in a Nature Recovery Green Paper which will support our ambitions to restore nature and halt the decline in species abundance by 2030.

Read a full summary in our latest press notice.

4. Woodland creation delivery partners to publish their proposals on to the Forestry Commission Public Registers

Following IT system development, non-Forestry Commission (FC) woodland creation delivery partners (organisations receiving funding from DEFRA for woodland creation, such as the Woodland Trust in the Northern Forest, and many Community Forests), will be able to publish and manage their own woodland creation applications on the FC’s Consultation and Decision Public Registers from Monday 28 March 2022.

From Monday 28 March 2022, comments made by the public on DEFRA woodland creation partner applications via the Consultation Public Register will be received directly by the partners themselves, streamlining public engagement and decision making processes. Decisions on grant offers made by the various woodland creation partners will also be published directly onto the FC’s Decision Public Register.

However, woodland creation delivery partners will still be required to submit separate applications to the FC for any relevant regulatory approval, for example, for afforestation projects under the Environmental Impact Assessment (Forestry) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999, where that is required.

4.1 Upgraded platform for Forestry Commission Public Registers

To enable DEFRA woodland creation partners to access the Forestry Commission’s Consultation and Decision Public Registers, the Registers are being moved to a new platform from Monday 28 March 2022.

The Public Registers will look and function very similarly to their current form, but their web addresses (URLs) will change, and the Consultation Public Register privacy notice will be updated. A redirection prompt will be in place so that there is minimal disruption to users. There is no downtime anticipated with this upgrade.

There will be new Public Registers user guidance published on the Public Registers’ webpage to provide support for user.

5. Reminder: grant claim deadline

5.1 The claim deadline for the 2021/22 financial year is 23:59pm on Thursday 31 March 2022, the deadline is fast approaching, please submit your grant claim in plenty of time.

Grant schemes that are operated by the FC and are part of the Nature for Climate Fund (such as England Woodland Creation Offer, Urban Tree Challenge Fund and Local Authority Treescapes Fund) have a new, excel based claim form, these have been sent out to agreement holders who are due to submit a claim form for payment by the 31 March deadline. If you have any questions about your claim please contact the team who administer the fund, contact details will be available in your agreement documents or from the relevant GOV.UK page.

6. Update on Rural Payments business permissions issue

Last February, for data protection reasons the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) introduced a requirement for customers to check and confirm the data held on Rural Payments about their businesses at least annually, including details of any individuals who have been given permission to undertake specific activities on behalf of the businesses, like submitting CS or BPS applications. As businesses reach this annual deadline, access to them online is being restricted until a customer holding full business permissions for the business concerned logs in and confirms the relevant information. Unfortunately, this is having the effect of locking agents and other parties holding only scheme specific permissions out of the online account until this confirmation process has been completed.

An incident was raised on 23/02/2022 stating that some users were unable to access their businesses on Rural Payments where the business was in an ‘unconfirmed’ status, and where the person trying to access the business held either ‘view’ or ‘amend’ business level permissions. This issue has been resolved for anyone who was affected up to 09/03/2022. Users who are added to a business, where the business has an ‘unconfirmed’ status, and where the business level permissions allocated are ‘view’ or ‘amend’ will still see the ‘business not checked’ message, until the business is confirmed by someone with ‘make legal changes’ or ‘full’ business permissions.

The ‘unconfirmed’ status refers to the business details (business name, address, contact details, legal status etc). Businesses are being asked annually to confirm that the data we hold is still correct, and if not, to update it. Where a business’s details have not been confirmed or updated in 365 days, the system will flag the business as ‘unconfirmed’. Once the details have been checked, the status changes to ‘confirmed’.

Please contact the RPA helpline on 03000 200 301 if you are still experiencing issues.

7. Grascott Farm: Innovating with timber, biomass, and wood products

7.1 Take a look at our new case study, set within North Devon’s UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, to see how you can combine a woodland rich in biodiversity with income generation.

Grascott Farm boasts a thriving woodland teeming with wildlife – as well as providing a steady income through timber and other innovative wood products, biomass, and local recreation.

Sam Whatmore - Owner, Grascott Farm said:

Forestry is like slow-setting cement, you have time to adjust and re-set as you go. Thorough management during establishment creates a virtuous circle: if you do it right, the trees will do the job for you.

8. England Woodland Creation Offer Application Form top tips

8.1 Over the coming weeks we’ll be sharing some advice on how you should complete the EWCO Application Form so that we have all the information we need to process your application.

Tip 1: Make sure your Rural Payments Service information is up to date

All lead applicants and agents (if authorised to claim grant payments) must be fully verified on the Rural Payments Service to confirm their identity. This must be resolved before we are able to run eligibility checks on your England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) application.

Under “People and permissions” of your business, we will check if there is a “More information required” notice next to the name of the lead applicant or agent of the scheme. If so, this must be amended by contacting the Rural Payments Service at ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk or by phone on 03000 200 301. We can only proceed with your application once this is resolved.

9. England Woodland Creation Offer Application Form reminder

Please remember that from 22 March 2022 we will only accept applications made on at least version 1.4 of the Part A and version 1.4 of the Part B EWCO Application Form. For the most up to date version of our EWCO forms, please always visit the EWCO Application Form page.