At a recent event in parliament, environment minister Rebecca Pow said that much of the remaining temperate rainforests were already protected, citing figures from Natural England. But analysis by Lost Rainforests of Britain has found that only 5,000 hectares (12,489 acres) of English rainforest is under formal protection in SSSIs. Shrubsole’s book may be a re-enchantment but as a campaigner he has clear aims: he wants the British government to draw up a rainforest strategy. Rather than just protecting the final fragments, he is seeking restoration, and believes a realistic target is to double the 1% land area within a generation. This could be achieved, his mapping has shown, simply by allowing the fragments that remain to naturally regenerate on their fringes. Epiphytes!" Shrubsole had exclaimed excitedly when I asked what to look out for on my outing. An epiphyte is a plant – such as moss, ferns and lichen – that, given wet conditions, grows on top of another plant. Their presence on trees and branches is one of the biggest indicators of a temperate rainforest environment. The restored temperate rainforest will remove an estimated 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the next 100 years. This is equivalent to the emissions created by one person taking over 740,000 transatlantic flights*

Mosses, liverworts, lichens – you can switch these layers on and off to show public records of different species of mosses, liverworts and lichens that are considered to be good indicators of temperate rainforest. The carbon removal will begin from 2024 and will be at its fastest around 2060 when the forests are expected to be removing about 24,000 tonnes CO2 each year. The carbon removal will continue at a slower rate well beyond 2130. The whole woodland creation programme is expected to bring about a net reduction in atmospheric carbon levels from 2036 onwards. It is expected that by 2040, when Aviva plans to be a Net Zero company, the projects will already have removed more than 34,000 tonnes of emissions from the atmosphere. We are the UK’s leading Insurance, Wealth & Retirement business and we operate in the UK, Ireland and Canada. We also have international investments in India, China and Singapore. The project is expected to remove approximately 800,000 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere - equivalent to the emissions created by one person taking over 740,000 transatlantic flights*

Help save our rainforests

Temperate rainforests would have been felled as long ago as the Bronze Age to clear space for farming. That’s understandable. What’s more tragic is what has happened in recent decades. We still had more of these rainforests up until recent times, but when the Forestry Commission was formed in the early 20th century, it decided to fell old ancient woodland and planted conifers instead. Beefsteak fungus growing in a temperate rainforest in Wales. What inspired you to advocate for Britain’s rainforests? The carbon removal should deliver significant biodiversity and climate change adaptation benefits by creating habitat that can support flora including mosses, lichen, ferns and a host of unusual plants and wildlife such as wood warblers, bats, pine martens and red squirrels. The increase in woodland should also help to moderate water flows and improve shading in the hotter, drier conditions expected with climate change.

One way to refamiliarise ourselves with the species that once roamed the length and breadth of the British landscape is to revisit the tales of our past, Shrubsole said. “We need to reconcile ourselves with the Grimms’ Fairy Tales vision of the wolf eating grandma; we need to find and retell the legends that celebrate some of those creatures more – such as the Celtic stories in which humans transform themselves into animals.” Aviva is a Living Wage, Living Pension and Living Hours employer and provides market-leading benefits for our people, including flexible working, paid carers leave and equal parental leave. Find out more at https://www.aviva.com/about-us/our-people/ The Lost Rainforests of Britain campaign today launches a new map revealing the extent of Britain’s surviving fragments of temperate rainforest.Temperate rainforests are characterised by very wet, humid and mild climates," explained Dr Alison Smith, a scientist from conservation charity Plantlife, who is currently leading a project to protect and enhance temperate rainforests in south-west England. "They require low temperature variations throughout the year and high annual rainfall. Often, they are found in coastal and upland areas with deeply incised topography – like rivers, ravines and waterfalls – that add to the humid conditions." As an adult, he has worked as a campaigner for Friends of the Earth and Rewilding Britain but it was when he moved to Wales to work for a small charity, the Public Interest Research Centre, based in Machynlleth, that he discovered lost rainforests.