‘Jewel of Britain’s nature crown’: Plan to restore rainforest welcomed by campaigners

Conservationists say government strategy to recover England’s degraded temperate rainforest is a good start but want a target to double the area by 2050

Conservationists have praised the launch of a new government strategy to revive the remaining fragments of the vast temperate rainforests that once formed the “jewels of Britain’s nature crown”.

Temperate rainforest, also known as Atlantic woodland or Celtic rainforest, once covered most of western Britain and Ireland. The archipelago’s wet, mild conditions are ideal for lichens, mosses and liverworts. But centuries of destruction have meant that only small, isolated pockets remain.