The Interrelationship Between Land Values, Woodland Planting, and Farm Characteristics

There are well-documented environmental benefits of the impact of tree planting but limited research on the implications for agricultural land values. Although trees provide significant public and economic benefits, farmers’ perceptions of their value are crucial in determining their willingness to adopt tree planting initiatives. This paper focuses on the application of hedonic price modelling (HPM) to assess the impact of trees on agricultural land values, controlling for other factors including types of farms, soil quality, location, and local population density. The paper begins by reviewing existing agricultural HPM studies noting key factors affecting land prices, with a particular focus on trees. This review justifies the framework for our subsequent empirical HPM analysis of English farmland with three hypotheses to be tested. By examining the relationship between land prices and various agricultural attributes including location, farm infrastructure, land parcel size, soil quality, farm type, and existing woodland cover—this analysis quantifies how tree planting influences agricultural land valuation. The results suggest that the existence of woodland on a farm does not significantly influence land prices that are primarily influenced by other farm characteristics. However, larger woodland areas, above approximately 80 acres, show a modest positive impact on land values, implying a non-linear relationship. Policymakers aiming to promote afforestation must therefore recognize these value relationships between traditional agricultural land use and woodland expansion.