Great Britain and the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights — England, Local Authorities and the Lewes Tree Charter

1. Legal and institutional nature of the Declaration

The Universal Declaration of Tree Rights establishes three founding Articles concerning recognition, respect, protection and responsibility towards the Tree. The institutional initiative surrounding it is ethical, scientific, normative, legal, democratic, cultural and educational.

The Declaration is not an institutional branch of the Rights of Nature movement. It may share environmental-protection objectives with other approaches, but it follows an autonomous framework and does not make legal personhood, judicial standing or litigation on behalf of nature a necessary foundation of Tree Rights.

The Declaration is not an Act of Parliament, a statutory instrument, a treaty in force, a judgment, a planning policy, a public authority or an intergovernmental organisation. Its adoption by a British authority therefore does not amend domestic law or displace statutory powers.

Under the current official framework, adoption by a local or regional authority is linked to the simultaneous and full adoption of the Fifteen Commitments of Local and Regional Authorities. The Declaration states the foundation; the Fifteen Commitments organise the progressive institutional roadmap.

Official adoption does not automatically confer legal personhood on Trees, create independent litigation capacity, transfer public powers to La Compagnie des Papillons Bleus, alter public or private ownership, create offences or sanctions, or constitute adherence by the United Kingdom to the separate proposed International Convention on Tree Rights.

2. Great Britain, the United Kingdom and devolved legal systems

Great Britain comprises England, Wales and Scotland. The United Kingdom comprises Great Britain and Northern Ireland. These terms must not be used interchangeably in a legal implementation guide.

Local government, planning, biodiversity, forestry and environmental regulation are substantially affected by devolution. A procedure legally appropriate for an English town council cannot simply be copied into Wales or Scotland.

This article therefore provides a Great Britain framework but a detailed operational analysis for England. Sections 20 and 21 identify the principal differences for Wales and Scotland.

3. Town and parish councils in England: what a Town Council legally is

English local government is multi-layered. Depending on the area, functions may be divided between parish or town councils, district councils, county councils, unitary authorities, combined authorities, national park authorities and other statutory bodies.

Under the Local Government Act 1972, a parish may acquire the status or style of a town and its parish council may consequently be called a Town Council. This does not transform it into a district or principal council and does not automatically transfer planning, highway, forestry or regulatory functions to it.

A town council may nevertheless exercise a range of statutory functions, manage land and facilities, employ staff, enter contracts, support community projects, make representations, participate in neighbourhood planning and — where the statutory conditions are met — use the General Power of Competence.

4. General Power of Competence: an important but conditional legal basis

Sections 1 to 8 of the Localism Act 2011 establish a General Power of Competence. In broad terms, a qualifying local authority may do anything that individuals generally may do, subject to statutory limitations and restrictions.

For parish and town councils, however, this power is available only to an eligible parish council. Eligibility is governed by the Localism Act and the Parish Councils (General Power of Competence) (Prescribed Conditions) Order 2012.

At the time the relevant resolution is passed, the Order requires, in substance, an electoral mandate, a qualified clerk and the prescribed relevant training: at least two-thirds of the members of the council must hold office as a result of having been declared elected rather than co-opted; the clerk must hold one of the prescribed or successor local-council qualifications; and the clerk must have completed the relevant training in the exercise of the General Power of Competence unless that training formed part of the qualifying course. The council must resolve that the prescribed conditions are met, and eligibility must be renewed in accordance with the statutory cycle.

The General Power of Competence can provide a useful basis for voluntary initiatives, partnerships, services, projects, grants and institutional action. It is not a power to ignore prohibitions, procedural requirements or functions allocated by Parliament to another body.

It cannot, for example, allow a town council to issue a Tree Preservation Order if it is not the local planning authority, grant or refuse planning permission where that function is vested elsewhere, create criminal offences, or replace a Forestry Commission felling licence.

5. The biodiversity duty: a strong statutory point of articulation

Section 40 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006, strengthened by section 102 of the Environment Act 2021, requires public authorities operating in England to consider what action they can properly take to further the general biodiversity objective, determine appropriate policies and objectives, and act to deliver them.

The Government’s biodiversity-duty guidance applies the duty to public authorities. Town and parish councils are therefore required to fulfil the substantive duty within their functions.

Parish councils are excluded from the general statutory biodiversity-reporting duty applying to other local authorities and local planning authorities. That exemption from reporting does not remove the underlying biodiversity duty itself.

The Fifteen Commitments can therefore provide a structured method for a town council to organise inventories, canopy objectives, soils, public participation, project review, monitoring and long-term stewardship around a statutory duty that already exists in English law.

6. Three legal levels that must remain distinct

Official adoption of the Declaration does not collapse these three levels into one.

7. Tree Preservation Orders and conservation areas

Tree Preservation Orders are a central instrument of English Tree law. Under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and the Tree Preservation (England) Regulations 2012, a local planning authority may protect individual Trees, groups of Trees or woodlands where it considers protection expedient in the interests of amenity.

The Government’s planning guidance on Tree Preservation Orders and conservation areas explains that cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting, wilfully damaging or wilfully destroying a protected Tree generally requires the local planning authority’s written consent, subject to statutory exceptions.

Separate notification requirements apply to many works to Trees in conservation areas where no Tree Preservation Order already applies.

8. Felling licences, forestry law and hedgerows

The Forestry Commission’s guidance states that a felling licence is normally required to fell growing Trees in England unless a statutory exemption applies. Felling without a licence where one is required is an offence.

This regime is distinct from planning controls, Tree Preservation Orders and conservation-area rules. A project may therefore need to be assessed through more than one legal route.

The Hedgerows Regulations 1997 create a separate regime for certain countryside hedgerows. Where the Regulations apply, the local planning authority processes the removal notice and consults the relevant parish council.

The Ninth Commitment — Regulate Felling — must be implemented accordingly. A town council can strengthen its own decision standards, require conservation to be examined before removal on its own land, record losses and replacements, make representations and educate residents. It cannot replace statutory felling, TPO, conservation-area or hedgerow regimes.

9. Ancient woodland, ancient Trees and veteran Trees

Natural England and the Forestry Commission treat ancient woodland, ancient Trees and veteran Trees as irreplaceable habitats. Their standing advice is a material planning consideration for local planning authorities.

The official standing advice requires decision-makers to consider direct and indirect impacts on soils, roots, water, ecological connections, pollution and the long-term integrity of such habitats. The guidance emphasises avoidance and reduction of harm and states that their irreplaceable character must be reflected in planning decisions.

This framework strongly supports the logic of several Fifteen Commitments: recognising Guardian Trees, preserving the vital environment of Trees, assessing projects before decisions, prioritising conservation and treating compensation as a last resort rather than a licence to destroy.

10. Planning and neighbourhood planning: from principle to land-use policy

Planning powers in England are statutory. A town council that is not the local planning authority cannot grant or refuse planning permission, impose planning conditions or make Tree Preservation Orders merely by adopting a policy resolution.

However, parish and town councils can play an important role in neighbourhood planning. Government guidance confirms that a parish or town council is a qualifying body capable of leading neighbourhood planning in its area.

A neighbourhood plan follows a statutory preparation, consultation, examination and referendum process. Once brought into force, its policies form part of the development plan used in planning decisions, subject to the wider statutory planning framework.

This makes neighbourhood planning one of the clearest routes through which lawfully drafted Tree-related objectives — canopy, green infrastructure, protection of significant Trees, soils, biodiversity and design — may move from an institutional commitment into the planning framework.

11. Private property, safety, evidence and proportionality

Official adoption does not alter title to land or Trees and does not create a general power to control private property. Measures affecting private owners must rest on a lawful statutory power and comply with the procedures and safeguards applicable to that power.

The Declaration also does not require the retention of a Tree where competent evidence establishes that intervention is legally necessary for public safety, infrastructure, plant health or another lawful purpose.

What it changes is the quality of decision-making: the authority is encouraged to identify the Tree’s condition and living environment, examine alternatives, distinguish genuine necessity from convenience, document the evidence, minimise harm and ensure that any intervention is proportionate to the lawful objective pursued.

12. Public assets, procurement, contracts and works: where implementation can be immediate

A local authority has its clearest operational control over Trees and land that it owns or manages, works that it commissions and contracts that it enters into within its lawful powers.

Progressive implementation may therefore include:

• inventories and condition records for Council Trees;
• root-protection and soil-protection requirements for public works;
• arboricultural method statements and competent supervision;
• watering, establishment and survival obligations for new planting;
• avoidance of unnecessary hard surfacing and soil compaction;
• maintenance specifications that avoid damaging pruning practices;
• contractual reporting on removals, replacements and establishment success;
• long-term management of veteran or habitat Trees;
• public disclosure of major Tree-management decisions.

Public procurement and contract management must comply with the Procurement Act 2023, its regulations and other applicable procurement duties. The Declaration does not displace procurement law; it can inform lawful specifications, outcomes and contract-management standards.

13. What an English adoption resolution may contain

A carefully drafted resolution may:

• adopt jointly and in full the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights and the Fifteen Commitments of Local and Regional Authorities within the official institutional procedure;
• identify and attach the exact versions of the documents adopted;
• state expressly that implementation will take place only within the Council’s lawful powers and functions;
• record the relevant statutory bases, including the biodiversity duty and, where verified, the General Power of Competence or other specific powers;
• instruct officers or a working group to prepare a phased implementation programme;
• audit Council-owned or managed Trees, soils and canopy;
• review maintenance, public works and procurement standards;
• establish or propose consultative institutions;
• provide for measurable indicators and periodic public reporting;
• identify the Council contact responsible for institutional follow-up, registration and exchanges with other signatory authorities;
• coordinate with the local planning authority, highway authority, Forestry Commission, National Park Authority and other competent bodies;
• identify which commitments require future planning, budgetary, contractual, policy or regulatory steps.

The resolution should avoid presenting as immediately enforceable any obligation that requires a separate statutory power, planning instrument, licence, contract, budget decision or regulatory procedure.

14. The Fifteen Commitments: a progressive implementation roadmap for English local authorities

The Fifteen Commitments of Local and Regional Authorities are not fifteen unrelated options. They form the institutional roadmap through which a signatory authority progressively gives effect to the Declaration.

Official adoption is joint and complete; implementation is progressive. An authority does not select only the commitments it prefers. It adopts the common corpus and then determines, commitment by commitment, what can be implemented directly, what requires another local act, and what depends on cooperation with another competent authority.

15. Assembly of the Tree and Defender of the Tree in English local democracy

The Assembly of the Tree is designed as a consultative institution. An English council can explore a committee, advisory committee, working group, panel or other participatory mechanism compatible with local-government law, its standing orders and the rules applicable to meetings, membership and decision-making.

The Defender of the Tree may be structured as an independent or functionally independent alert and recommendation role, with a defined appointment process, access to information, reporting route, ethical rules and term of office.

16. Guardian Trees and the Guardian Tree Passport

Guardian Tree recognition is an institutional and cultural tool for identifying Trees of exceptional ecological, historical, scientific, landscape or community significance. It can complement — but must never be confused with — statutory protections.

The Guardian Tree Passport can consolidate species and identification data, location and management status, estimated age and dimensions, ancient or veteran features, ecological functions, historical and cultural information, photographs, mapping, known TPO or conservation-area status, management history and future recommendations.

Where a Guardian Tree merits statutory protection, the appropriate course is to use or request the relevant English legal mechanism rather than treating the Passport itself as a new statutory category.

17. Official adoption procedure for an English local authority

1. Open the institutional procedure with La Compagnie des Papillons Bleus

   Before any motion, resolution or signature intended to constitute an official adoption, the authority contacts La Compagnie directly, explains its institutional context and begins the formal process.

2. Receive and identify the official English texts

   The authority receives or verifies the current official versions of the Declaration, the Fifteen Commitments, the Official Framework and the local-authority procedure. This prevents reliance on incomplete, superseded or unofficial texts.

3. Map the English legal powers and competent bodies

   The authority verifies its legal status, standing orders, statutory functions, landholdings, biodiversity duty, any valid General Power of Competence resolution, planning arrangements and sector-specific constraints.

4. Prepare the adoption resolution jointly

   The authority and La Compagnie prepare the institutional adoption process together. The resolution identifies the exact documents, adopts the Declaration and all Fifteen Commitments simultaneously and in full, records the local public interest and expressly separates adoption from later statutory, budgetary, contractual and planning measures.

5. Complete the Council’s lawful decision procedure

   Agenda, notice, meeting, declarations of interest, debate, voting, minutes, financial implications and any officer or legal review are handled under the Council’s applicable legal and governance framework.

6. Complete institutional formalisation, registration and progressive implementation

   After the vote and the applicable public-law formalities, the authority completes the institutional formalisation already prepared with La Compagnie. The adoption is verified, the authority may be entered in the International Register of Signatory Authorities, and a realistic implementation programme is established with responsibilities, timetable, resources, indicators, public reporting and recurring evaluation.

7. Participate in the international exchange of territorial experience

   Registration places the authority within an international institutional network designed to facilitate cooperation, the sharing of experience and good practices, and the circulation of territorial knowledge. The authority’s own implementation experience can in turn inform other signatory authorities and contribute to the progressive development of the international framework.

18. The International Register: recognition, cooperation and shared experience

Once the official adoption procedure and institutional formalisation have been completed, the authority may be entered in the International Register of Signatory Authorities, administered by La Compagnie des Papillons Bleus within the institutional framework of the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights.

The Register is not merely an archival list. Its purposes include:

• maintaining the institutional record of authorities that have officially joined the Declaration;
• ensuring the traceability of adoptions and the documents on which they are based;
• giving visibility to territorial commitments;
• facilitating cooperation among signatory authorities;
• encouraging the sharing of experience, methods and good practices;
• and contributing to the development of an international network.

Entry in the Register has declaratory and institutional significance. It is not a UK statutory register, a ministerial accreditation, a planning designation, a public certification by the UK Government or recognition by an intergovernmental organisation. Registration does not, by itself, create a new governmental power, special legal personality, private cause of action or additional international obligation.

An autonomous local motion may have the effects that domestic law gives it, but an initiative undertaken outside the official procedure cannot be recorded or presented by La Compagnie as an official adoption within the Declaration’s institutional framework.

19. Institutional support, documents and intellectual property

La Compagnie des Papillons Bleus may provide doctrinal, scientific, methodological, institutional, documentary and educational support. Such support is not individualised legal advice under English, Welsh or Scots law and does not replace review by the authority’s legal advisers or by a lawyer qualified in the relevant jurisdiction.

The name “Déclaration universelle des droits de l’Arbre” has been the subject of a trademark filing in France. The English designation and the official institutional texts must also be distinguished from local adaptations, unofficial rewrites and third-party initiatives.

20. Wales: a separate legal route

Wales has its own local-government and environmental framework. Community and town councils should therefore not use the English Localism Act route as though it applied identically.

Part 2 of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 establishes a Welsh General Power of Competence for qualifying local authorities, including eligible community councils, subject to the statutory conditions and limits.

Section 6 of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 imposes a biodiversity and resilience of ecosystems duty on public authorities.

Accordingly, the Declaration and Fifteen Commitments may be territorialised in Wales, but the adoption instrument must be prepared under Welsh law, planning arrangements, biodiversity duties and the authority’s own powers.

21. Scotland: local authorities and community councils must be distinguished

Scotland has a materially different local-government structure. Scottish local authorities are not equivalent to English parish or town councils, and Scottish community councils are consultative bodies with a different legal status.

Section 20 of the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 gives local authorities a power to do anything they consider likely to promote or improve well-being, subject to statutory limits.

Section 1 of the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 places a duty on public bodies and office-holders, when exercising functions, to further the conservation of biodiversity so far as consistent with the proper exercise of those functions.

The Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 12 March 2026, creates a new statutory framework for biodiversity targets and related environmental measures. Under section 59, only sections 57, 58, 59 and 60 came into force automatically on the day after Royal Assent; the other provisions come into force on such day as the Scottish Ministers appoint by regulations. Accordingly, the new biodiversity-target framework in Part 1 should not be presented as fully operative merely because the Act has received Royal Assent: its commencement and the regulations setting the detailed targets must be checked at the date of any Scottish adoption or implementation measure.

A Scottish adoption therefore requires its own analysis of the adopting body, its statutory status, planning functions, forestry law, biodiversity duties, the developing 2026 statutory framework and governance procedures. The English town-council template should not simply be transplanted north of the border.

22. Case study — Lewes, East Sussex: from the Tree Charter to a possible official adoption

Lewes provides an important contemporary case because the Town Council has already taken an institutional step concerning the recognition of Trees.

According to the published motion and contemporary reporting, Lewes Town Council unanimously approved a Tree Charter on 10 September 2026. The initiative was proposed by Councillor Dinah Morgan and developed through the Rights of our Trees (ROOTs) group, involving local organisations and legal and environmental contributors.

The Charter covers Trees in Lewes, with the motion defining the term broadly to include woodlands, hedgerows and forests as well as individual Trees. It presents ten rights as ethical and policy principles intended to guide the Council within the limits of its statutory powers.

22.1. Planning authority: the South Downs National Park Authority

Lewes lies within the South Downs National Park. The South Downs National Park Authority states that, from 1 April 2026, planning services in the relevant Lewes and Eastbourne areas returned to the SDNPA, which deals with planning matters in the recovered areas of the National Park.

This allocation of functions has direct consequences for implementation. Lewes Town Council may comment on planning applications, advocate Tree retention, use evidence, lead neighbourhood planning and manage its own assets. It does not itself become the decision-maker on planning applications or Tree Preservation Orders merely because it has adopted the Tree Charter.

22.2. Two institutional layers can coexist

The two layers need not compete. A legal concordance could identify areas of convergence, differences in vocabulary and legal theory, existing Lewes commitments, remaining gaps and the English-law mechanisms available for each of the Fifteen Commitments.

22.3. Territorialising the Fifteen Commitments in Lewes

Measures principally within Town Council organisation and assets

• inventory and mapping of Trees owned or managed by the Town Council;
• Tree, soil and root-protection standards in Council works and contracts;
• public records of removals, replacements and establishment success;
• citizen participation, education and local Tree knowledge;
• Guardian Tree recognition and Guardian Tree Passports as institutional tools;
• monitoring indicators and regular progress reports.

Measures requiring a political, budgetary or governance act

• formal establishment of an Assembly of the Tree or equivalent consultative body;
• appointment and terms of reference of a Defender of the Tree;
• a multi-year Tree and canopy strategy;
• budget provision for surveys, arboricultural expertise, soils, watering, planting and long-term maintenance;
• formal review of procurement, public-works and asset-management standards.

Measures dependent on other statutory authorities or legal procedures

• Tree Preservation Orders and conservation-area controls;
• planning permissions, conditions and enforcement;
• Forestry Commission felling licences;
• highway functions outside Town Council responsibility;
• statutory controls affecting private landowners;
• planning-policy changes requiring a neighbourhood plan or other statutory plan-making procedure.

22.4. A possible operational route for Lewes

1. Preserve the legal identity of the existing Tree Charter

   Document what was adopted on 10 September 2026 and avoid retrospectively relabelling it as the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights.

2. Open a formal exchange with La Compagnie des Papillons Bleus

   Any official adoption procedure begins before a new vote.

3. Prepare a concordance between the Tree Charter and the Fifteen Commitments

   Identify what Lewes already covers, what is only aspirational, what is missing, and which institution holds each relevant legal function.

4. Audit the Town Council’s legal bases

   Confirm current statutory powers, property, standing orders, biodiversity-duty work and any valid General Power of Competence resolution.

5. Coordinate with the South Downs National Park Authority and other competent bodies

   Separate the Town Council’s institutional commitments from planning, forestry, highway and other regulatory functions held elsewhere.

6. Prepare a specific official-adoption resolution

   The new resolution would identify and jointly adopt the Declaration and all Fifteen Commitments while preserving the existing Lewes Charter as a distinct local instrument.

7. Adopt a phased implementation roadmap and complete registration

   Set responsibilities, timetable, budget, indicators and a public reporting method, distinguishing immediate Town Council measures from those requiring external cooperation or statutory processes. Once institutional formalisation is complete, Lewes could be entered in the International Register of Signatory Authorities and participate in the international exchange of experience and good practices among signatory territories.

23. Conclusion: in Great Britain, one common framework but several legal routes