Research news

A first-of-its-kind toolkit aimed at winning legal rights for trees, woodlands and forests in the UK, has been launched by the Environmental Justice Law Clinic. 

The Rights of Trees, Woodlands and Forests toolkit is available online and seeks to advance the way we recognise and respect the inherent value of trees and woodlands in the UK. The Rights of Nature movement recognises ecosystems - such as rivers, forests, and mountains - not as human property or resources, but as legal subjects with inherent rights to exist, thrive, and regenerate. 

By changing the way legal and policy protections for trees work, it hopes to address the ongoing destruction of trees and woodland by human activity and shift social attitudes. 

Associate Professor Joanna Smallwood, lead of the Environmental Justice Law Clinic at Sussex and a Rights of Nature lawyer, who created the toolkit said: “We believe changing our legal systems to better protect nature requires shifting attitudes, changing the way we speak about other parts of nature and giving a voice to nature in decision making.   

“We are part of nature, not above nature and other parts of nature are living beings with inherent rights that should be better respected in decisions impacting them.  

“Our trees, woodlands and forests are such wonderful living communities that we live alongside. I know how many people have a favourite tree, a special spiritual connection with trees or find another sense of being within our beautiful British woodlands and those further afield.”  

The loss of historic trees such as the Sycamore Gap tree and the Whitewebbs Oak, has raised attention to the importance of the UK’s woodlands.  

The Sycamore Gap tree stood at a beauty spot on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland and was illegally felled in 2023 causing outrage around the world. Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers, the men who cut the tree were each jailed for four years and three months in 2025. 

In 2025, a 500-year-old oak tree on the edge of a Toby Carvery car park in Whitewebbs Park, Enfield, North London was partially felled without permission. Enfield Council is pursuing eviction proceedings against the owners of the restaurant chain.   

The toolkit provides a strategy for groups and individuals battling to save endangered trees and woodlands by challenging current law and policy which is often based on considering nature solely as property, objects and resources. Available online it involved research conducted by law students at the University of Sussex. 

Principles from the toolkit have already been used to protect trees such as the 1066 Yew Tree in St George’s Churchyard, Crowhurst, Sussex thought to be more than 1,300 years old, pre-dating the Battle of Hastings and the arrival of William the Conqueror.   

In September 2025, Associate Professor Smallwood supported residents who persuaded Rother District Council to agree a motion supporting ‘personhood’ for the 1066 Yew and other heritage trees. The council motion supports the introduction of legislation that has regard to the trees' rights such as the right to exist, grow, be free of injury and have an articulated voice in the community and to support the Yew’s “personhood status” for the 1066 Yew tree.  

The toolkit project has been supported by Caroline Lucas, former leader of the Green Party and Professor of Practice at the University of Sussex who has written the foreword. She said: “This ground-breaking toolkit serves not only as a legal and policy resource, but also as a reflection of a wider cultural shift in how societies value and live alongside the natural world. It outlines the current legal frameworks and how to make best use of them to protect trees, woodlands and forests.   

“But it also goes much further by inviting us to understand nature as a community of life that humans are part of – not above – and, crucially, it makes practical suggestions on how this can be achieved.”  

This research builds on the University of Sussex’s goal to become one of the most sustainable universities in the world, one of the three transformational themes of the new strategy, Sussex 2035. 

The Rights of Trees follows innovative work in the UK by environmental groups to enshrine in law the rights of rivers, with ten councils now recognising the rights of their local rivers.   

The toolkit can be found on University of Sussex website.   

This work supports the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 15 (Life on land). You can read more about our work on the SDGs here.