The Woodland Trust has received the green light from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for a UK-wide project which could see the restoration of 52,000 hectares of ancient woodland.
The project intends to work with more than 1,000 landowners to offer information and advice on restoring conifer woods to their natural broadleaved state.
It is hoped that the restoration plan could see an area of woodland equivalent to one third the size of London being improved, across ten priority areas in the UK.
The £1.9m secured for restoring ancient woodland will go towards the total £2.9m cost of the project, with the Woodland Trust appealing for public donations to make up a £530,000 funding gap and the rest coming from partner organisations.
Ancient woodland restoration involves the gradual removal of conifers from a plantation, to allow a greater amount of light to penetrate the woodland canopy, encouraging specialist ancient woodland species to recover and reverse years of damage.
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