Research from Our World in Data shows that Scotland’s forests have grown to levels that haven’t been seen in almost a millennium. This incredible forest coverage represents a nearly 18% of all Scotland’s territory, while last century it was only 6%.
To give some perspective, according to Our World Data:
"1,000 years ago, 20% of Scotland's land was covered by forest. By the mid-18th century, only 4% of the country was forested. But then the trend turned, and it moved from deforestation to reforestation.”
Even more excitingly, according to the research, France and England are following a similar trend. In 11th century England for example, 15% of the land was covered by forest, then by the following century only one-third remained.
It was not until the mid 19th century that England reached an awakening in the fight against global warming and started to reforest. Since then, English forests have doubled in size, and there are plans to reforest even further.
The current plan is to plant 75,000 acres of forest each year in England by 2025. This in turn would reforest an extra 10% of England in the following 50 years. In addition, that is not all, the Scottish government plans to reforest 21 percent of its total territory by 2032.
All this means that if the government meets their deadlines (which they have so far) England and Scotland go back to the 11th century, in terms of forested lands and greenspaces, which is something to be very excited about.