England's twelve community forests are afforestation-based regeneration projects which were established in the early 1990s. Each of them is a partnership between the Forestry Commission and the Countryside Agency, which are agencies of the British government, and the relevant local councils.
Most of the designated areas are close to large cities and contain large amounts of brownfield, underused and derelict land. When the forests were created the average forest cover in the designated areas was 6.9%, and the target is to increase this to 30% over about 30 years. As most of the land is in private ownership the schemes rely mainly on providing landowners with incentives to plant trees. However the forests contain areas of publicly accessible open land, and increasing public access is one of the objectives.
The table below lists the twelve forests. As some of them straddle county boundaries they are more conveniently listed by region and town or city.
| Forest | Region | City | Area | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forest of Avon | South West | Bristol | 221 square miles (570 km2) | [1] |
| Great North Forest | North East | Newcastle | 96 square miles (250 km2) | [2] |
| Great Western Forest | South West | Swindon | 140 square miles (360 km2) | [3] |
| Greenwood Forest | East Midlands | Nottingham | 161 square miles (420 km2) | [4] |
| Forest of Marston Vale | East of England | Bedford | 61 square miles (160 km2) | [5] |
| Forest of Mercia | West Midlands | Birmingham | 92 square miles (240 km2) | [6] |
| Mersey Forest | North West | Liverpool | 420 square miles (1,100 km2) | [7] |
| Red Rose Forest | North West | Manchester | 292 square miles (760 km2) | [8] |
| South Yorkshire Forest | Yorkshire and the Humber | Sheffield | 200 square miles (520 km2) | [9] |
| Tees Forest | North East | Middlesbrough | 135 square miles (350 km2) | [10] |
| Thames Chase | London and East of England | London | 40 square miles (100 km2) | [11] |
| Watling Chase | East of England | London | 72 square miles (190 km2) | [12] |