§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give his estimate of the area of ancient woodlands that remains in England and Wales on a county basis.
§ Mr. WaldegraveI am advised by the Nature Conservancy Council that the estimate of the area of ancient semi-natural woodland remaining in England and Wales in those counties for which information is available is as follows:
Hectares Avon 2,810 Bedfordshire 1,648 Buckinghamshire 6,809 Cambridgeshire 2,029 Cornwall 3,246 Essex 7,252 Hertfordshire 3,431 Humberside 767 Leicestershire 1,614 Lincolnshire 2,868 N. Cumbria 2,524 Norfolk 1,410 Northamptonshire 2,634 Northumberland 3,588 Oxfordshire 5,656 Shropshire 4,133 Somerset 5,687 Suffolk 3,022 Surrey 4,712 Clwyd 3,032 Gwent 3,249 Gwynedd 3,415 Pembrokeshire 1,244 Semi-natural woodlands are those where the tree and shrub layer is composed of species native to the site derived from natural regeneration, or from coppice regrowth from individuals which were themselves derived from natural regeneration.