WOODLAND burials and green funerals could soon be on offer in Gwent, under new plans to use woods as graveyards.

Families and friends would no longer grieve by a headstone in a churchyard, but by trees and flowers in a quiet glade under proposals to create new wildlife habitats by Gwent Wildlife Trust and a Monmouth company, Native Woodland.

Julian Branscombe, Trust manager, said: "We are very excited and there are a lot of people who want to be buried in a wood.

"Many churchyards don't really allow for wildlife, and there's concern about cremations and the possible pollution from fumes.

"But people can have an environmentally friendly end to their lives. "It's also an opportunity for the Trust to create the best designs for habitats to attract and nurture wildlife.

"The sites will be allowed to grow over and regenerate naturally. It will then be managed in perpetuity.

"It's a way that I would like to be buried. I like the idea of being planted." Mr Branscombe said trees would be encouraged to grow by woodland burials.

Once suitable areas are found and bought, the partners will plan the sites to optimise them for wildlife and put in rights of way, before selling burial rights for between £500 and £1,500 a plot.

A plot at a Newport cemetery is £497 and cremation costs about £300. Discreet headstones are optional and wooden coffins could be replaced with cardboard, biodegradable models. The GWT and Native Woodland would not perform the role of a funeral director.

James Leadham, a director at Monmouth-based Native Woodland, which has been set up to offer green burials, said: "People are becoming more individual and less interested in religion. They are also more environmentally conscious."

He added many people did not like crematoriums and found cemeteries too structured.

"I got involved with the concept when my aunt died and left instructions to be buried in a cardboard coffin with a tree planted on top," he said. James Tovey, of Newport funeral directors Tovey Bros, said: "It's one of many ways in which a funeral could be made more suited to the individual.

"We have had inquiries in the past about woodland burials. "Unfortunately there are a limited number of such sites in the Gwent area. In other parts of the UK they are more common.

"Many families would prefer a traditional burial, but giving them more choice is a good thing."