The Landworkers’ Alliance is a union of farmers, growers, foresters and land-based workers.

Feedback for us

If you have any comments, critiques, considerations, compliments, complaints, about anything the Landworkers Alliance is or isn’t up to, do let us know your thought. We love feedback, it keeps a system healthy. Please fill in this quick form.

Membership / Supporter / Donation Queries

Please contact Lauren.Simpson@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk

Requests for work, volunteering or internships

We are currently not recruiting for any roles but please read our newsletters for any announcements. We currently do not offer any volunteer or internship placements directly with the LWA, but keep an eye out in the newsletter or on the forum for any members looking for volunteers or workers.

Academic/Research Enquiries

Please look at the Agroecology Research Collaboration to see if it fits your area of research/work.

Membership Support / Advice

Currently the LWA does not have capacity or resources to help individual members or potential members on their specific projects, farms or programmes. We get a lot of requests for individual support and would love to have the time to respond to each request in full. We are fundraising for a new role for somebody to focus on membership support and services as we have identified it is a gap in our offering so please watch this space. Having said that, if your query is critical and urgent please email info@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk including the word URGENT in the subject header and it will get picked up and we can try our best to help.

Contacting Individual Staff

Please take the time to explore our staff page here to see who the most relevant contact for your enquiry is.

Our addresses format is firstname.lastname@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk

Please bear in mind we all work part time and have limited capacity to respond to enquiries outside our core areas of work.

You can also find information under the About Us header about branch and regional organising, and identity groups within the LWA membership.

Press/Media Enquiries:

For any queries relating to press please email press@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk

Merchandise/calendar Enquiries

For any enquiries to do with shop sales including the calendar please email merchandise@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk

To Include an Item in Our Newsletter:

You can fill in this quick form to submit it to be included in the next bulletin/newsletter. The deadline to submit is the end of Friday each week for the following week’s member bulletin. With the same form you can also submit to the monthly non-member newsletter which goes out in the first week of the month.

All Other Enquiries:

For any other enquiries that are URGENT please email info@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk with the word ‘urgent’ in the subject header and we will do our best to help.

Follow Us

Woodland and Forestry

What’s the issue?

The UK has one of the lowest levels of tree-cover in Europe, with only 13% of our landmass covered by woodlands and forestry. Consequently, we have to import around 60-70% of our timber from overseas to meet domestic timber demand. Not only do we urgently we need more trees to increase our timber stock, but as we face numerous ecological and climate crises we also need to nurture and expand our forests and woodland areas in order to provide habitats for biodiversity, and to act as carbon sinks. 

UK Government tree-planting initiatives are currently falling short of their annual targets, and furthermore, many of these publicly financed tree-planting schemes are being exploited by private interests to offset carbon emissions. 

To build a woodland nation we need to build and nurture thriving woodland landscapes which benefit woodland workers, wildlife and local communities.

What are we doing?

The LWA Forestry Sector is working on developing campaigns to demand more government support and funding for sustainable forestry. In 2020 we published our Forestry Manifesto, outlining key policy asks for building a more sustainable and agroecological forestry and woodland sector, and we continue to lobby these policy demands whenever and wherever possible.

We are currently in the process of building relations with allied forestry organisations and woodland groups, profiling sustainable woodland management by our members, and developing strategies to overcome the barriers of getting trees in the ground and our woodlands into management. We believe that with good planning and investment, the UK’s forests can help to address the climate crisis and restore our ecosystems, while also boosting employment and social wellbeing.

In terms of member organising, we held our first ever Forestry Sector gathering in May 2022, where dozens of woodland workers from across the UK came together to share experiences, swap skills, develop the vision of the Forestry Sector and party together (including a drum and bass ceilidh!) At the gathering, we formed a steering group of LWA members to guide the direction of travel of the Forestry Sector, acting as a sounding board for LWA staff on issues relating to the sector. 

What can you do?

LWA Forestry Sector members are active on a regional and UK level in campaigns, actions, events and participating in LWA member organising. Members can work with the member organising teams in each LWA region to bring in a Forestry perspective to regional organising, and take the lead on organising forestry and woodland related events and activities on a regional or branch level. Get in touch with natalia.szarek@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk to connect with LWA member organising in your region or branch.

If you would like to be kept up to date with projects or campaigns, or opportunities to join the Forestry Sector steering group, get in touch with woodland@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk

Additional Resources

Download PDF
The Cutting Edge (2023)
Twelve examples of ecological forestry in the UK.
Download PDF
LWA Forestry Manifesto (2020)
The UK’s current and future woodlands represent an opportunity for regeneration. This is the LWA Forestry Manifesto.
Download PDF
“Share the land, Spare the climate”
Our response to the government’s new Net- zero land use commitments.
Download PDF
Slash Timber Imports – Not Tropical Forests (2021)
An LWA Woody Branch Action in Grangemouth, Scotland to highlight the need for more domestic timber production in the UK.
Download PDF
The Promise of Agroforestry: Lessons From the Field (2021)
This report makes the case for more substantial government support for agroforestry in the UK, drawing on eight different case studies to explore the lessons that can be learned from...
Download PDF
LWA Response to the Woodland Creation Offer (2021)
Our response to the Uk Government's 2021 Woodland Creation offer.

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