The woodland section of the National Vegetation Classification (NVC) has been widely used since its publication in 1991 for the description of semi-natural woodland, in developing prescriptions for the composition of new woodland, and to provide links between UK woods and those in the rest of Europe. Better collation of results from surveys across the country is however needed. Criticisms of the classification have been that it ignores many important variations in the tree and shrub layers and in the woodland structure. These variations can be accommodated as cross-cutting divisions within the NVC framework. While the NVC woodland communities, for the most part, reflect environmental variations, there is increasing evidence that some differences are caused by changes in the level of grazing. The stability of the classes may need to be reviewed in the light of climate change if there are major shifts in species distributions and, hence, in the composition of woodland communities.

For further information on the National Vegetation Classification (NVC) and other NVC-related publications.