Licensing tree felling

Natural Resources Wales is the Welsh Government sponsored body responsible for licensing tree felling in Wales. We protect the trees, woodlands and forests of Wales by controlling tree felling, and we encourage good forestry practice by setting standards, giving advice and providing information.

Licensing tree felling enables this activity to be carried out legally, to the standards set in the UK Forestry Standard and in line with the Welsh Government’s policies promoting the sustainable management of natural resources and the well-being of the people of Wales.

Tree felling licences

Forest management plans

Forest management plans are strategic plans describing a plan holder intends to manage their forest or woodland in a sustainable manner over a ten to twenty-year period.

A forest management plan is a management tool that:

• takes account of a forest or woodland’s features, sensitivities, opportunities, planned operations, biodiversity, resilience, environmental, social and landscape factors
• provides felling permission for proposed thinning, felling and restocking for the first five years of a plan and outline approval for the following five years
• can be used to provide background for short-term grant windows, including expressions of interest to Welsh Government planting and management grant schemes or applications for Farming Connect sustainable woodland management plans
• provides evidence of sustainable forest management where a forest or woodland is certified under the UK Woodland Assurance Scheme (UKWAS), and wider evidence of the sustainable management of natural resources as defined in the Environment (Wales) Act 2016