英国树篱曾达到约100万公里，足以环绕地球25圈，但自20世纪50年代以来已消失超过一半。为扭转这一趋势，政府承诺在未来25年内于英格兰新建或修复72,500公里，几乎把现有网络扩大五分之一，而自2023年以来农民已种植约1,800公里，并承诺在未来三年再种植9,000公里。

脱欧后，英格兰农业资金从按土地面积补贴转向按“公共产品”付费：过去约五分之四、即28亿英镑主要按土地面积发放，如今75%、即18亿英镑用于野花、土壤和树篱等环境措施，高于两年前的8亿英镑。仅树篱管理一项，2024年的支付就从前一年的2,600万英镑升至7,000万英镑，同时另有10万公里现有树篱被纳入维护计划。

数据也显示出强烈的生态回报：2025年利兹大学的一项研究发现，树篱每公顷平均比草地多储存40吨碳。另一项去年发布的研究发现，树篱更多的地区蝴蝶更丰富，而在农田上，每增加1公里树篱就有5种蝴蝶数量上升；在一段90米长的树篱中，经过两年监测记录到超过2,000个不同物种。

Britain’s hedgerows once totaled about 1m kilometres, enough to circle the Earth 25 times, but more than half have disappeared since the 1950s. To reverse that decline, the government has pledged to create or restore 72,500km in England over the next 25 years, extending the network by almost a fifth, while farmers have already planted about 1,800km since 2023 and committed to another 9,000km over the next three years.

After Brexit, England’s farm budget shifted from land-based subsidies to payments for “public goods”: previously about four-fifths, or £2.8bn, was paid mainly according to land area, whereas now 75%, or £1.8bn, supports environmental measures such as wildflowers, soil, and hedgerows, up from £800m two years ago. Hedgerow payments alone rose from £26m in 2023 to £70m in 2024, and another 100,000km of existing hedgerows is now under maintenance schemes.

The numbers also show strong ecological returns: a 2025 University of Leeds study found that hedges store an average of 40 tonnes more carbon per hectare than grassland. Another study published last year found more butterflies where hedgerows were denser, and on farmland five butterfly species increased with each extra kilometre of hedgerow; in one 90-metre hedge, more than 2,000 different species were recorded over two years of monitoring.

Source: Why the British government is spending more on hedgerows

Subtitle: They are stitching the countryside back together

Dateline: 3月 05, 2026 07:08 上午 | Myndtow