Paper short abstract:

Understanding the social and cultural values of treescapes is critical as greater inclusion of these values in policy making could lead to them being more highly valued, better protected and managed resulting in greater human well-being and potentially improved conservation of treescapes.

Paper long abstract:

There is potential to better conserve treescapes through an improved understanding of Social and Cultural Values (S&CV). There is recognition by many decision makers of the need to take on a broader definition of S&CV as they relate to tree health, and to explore ways to improve the representation of these values in tree health policy, operational decision-making and delivery. This has emerged in response to tree health problems which has highlighted the strength of S&CVs associated with particular species e.g. ash (ash dieback). This research has developed a scale of S&CV which are linked to human wellbeing; it explores how the S&CV people hold might be impacted by a pest or disease, highlighting treescapes under stress, and exploring how these values can be considered in decision making. Through an evidence review, stakeholder workshops, and interviews, we developed the S&CV scale, which we then used in a representative survey of 5,000 people in England to explore S&CV at the local and national level. People value treescapes highly. Respondents felt that pests and diseases threaten the S&CV they hold for treescapes and that the greatest impacts would be the large-scale loss of trees and the gradual slow decline of trees in woods. There was less concern for loss of a small number of selected trees that are then replaced by different species. With greater inclusion of S&CVs in policy making treescapes could be valued more highly, better protected and managed, resulting in greater human well-being and potentially improved conservation of treescapes.