Woods for People is a project funded by the Woodland Trust with support from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, the Forestry Commission and the Environment and Heritage Service (Northern Ireland) to create and maintain a UK-wide dataset of accessible woodland.
The Woods for People data is gathered from a wide variety of sources including local authorities, NGOs, statutory agencies, woodland management companies and private landowners.
The partnership appointed Environment Systems to undertake this work whose efforts in tracking down data we gratefully acknowledge.
Using the National Inventory of Woodland and Trees (NIWT) in Great Britain and the Woodland Vector data in Northern Ireland we are able to see where this woodland is situated relative to all other inaccessible woodland. We can also calculate the proportion of all woodland that is accessible. See the results here.
As a result of this information the Woodland Trust has undertaken a major analysis of woodland access provision and deficit across the UK. This analysis is available to download for free from this website via a publication called Space for People.