By Stephen McConnachie, Robert D. Fish, Holly Harris, Beth B.F.T. Brockett, Harry Marshall, Maddy Pearson, Grace van der Wielen, and Bianca Ambrose-Oji
How do farmers feel about growing trees? To explore this question, we interviewed 49 farmers and held two group discussions with farmers in England. Our research found that a wide variety of things matter to farmers when they think about growing trees on their farms. Economic factors are important, but so too are things like farming identity, wellbeing, how the landscape looks and feels, and care for the farm and the wider environment. We call these things farmers’ values – what they consider to be good and important in life.
What farmers think about trees is important because many governments see increasing tree cover on farms as an effective way to help combat climate change. It is important that anyone aiming to increase tree cover on farms recognises and pays attention to the range of things that farmers care about. Doing so can help lead to enduring land use change in a way that positively involves farmers. While most farmers do not see growing trees as a main goal of their work, for many there are ways that trees do align with their wider concerns.
Values are complex and particular contexts strongly influence the things that matter to individual farmers – for example, the farmer’s history, the type of farming they do, and their relationships with other people. Our work provides a framework for understanding where, how, and why trees matter to farmers.
Relational Thinking 