The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will contribute £700k of funded research to protect ash trees as part of new funded research projects to tackle plant pests and diseases.

In total the £4m of funding will enable 17 new research projects to protect plants and treescapes as part of the government’s Plan for Change.

Contributing £4.1 billion per year to the UK’s economy, plants and trees are vulnerable to plant pests and diseases which could pose a threat to nature and the economy.

The 17 new Centre for Forest Protection research projects are a collaboration between Forest Research and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. These will facilitate future tree breeding for resilience, as well as new technologies.

The Defra funded research is to “fight against diseases which devastate our nation’s woodlands, protecting trees for the benefits they bring to our climate for people’s enjoyment,” says Professor Nicola Spence, Defra plant health officer.

Defra have planted 2500 young trees at a second UK ash tree archive in Scotland to find resilient trees for a potential seed orchard.

According to the government, climate change has increased the threat from pests and disease. Ash dieback has killed approximately over 100 million trees in the UK and cost the economy £15 million to Great Britain.

Dr Louise Gathercole, Centre for Forest Protection coordinator, says the funding is needed to “produce the evidence needed for future woodland resilience.”

Research projects include speed breeding technologies, resilience analysis on Scots pine, ash dieback studies and yew decline data capture.