'Environmental Vandalism' Prevented

Whilst away on fieldwork, I was keeping an eye on the recent consultation on the future of England’s forest estate. Concern for future public access, sustainability of national resources, impact on biodiversity and the loss of English heritage fuelled public action and stimulated an extensive campaign to halt the sale of 258,000 hectares of public forest estate.



In this current challenging economic period the government understandably have to make cut backs and raise revenue, this is where the coalitions ‘Big Society’ approach comes in. As I understand it, this privatisation of the forest to commercial bodies and NGOs was an effort to bring environmental management into the Big Society domain.

This however sparked public outrage, with the term ‘environmental vandalism’ conjuring up visions of industrial take over, widespread deforestation, disregard for the wildlife residing within the forest, loss of a valuable commodity, destruction of ecosystem services (such as pollination etc) and decimation of carbon sinks to many a concerned citizen. Campaign bodies such as 38 Degrees mounted petitions and within a few weeks rallied half a million signatures stimulating many to write to their local MPs. Of course with my background working in forest ecosystems both in my PhD and through forest ranger roles I felt the need to express my thoughts on the matter. Upon writing to my local MP I was impressed with the speed at which they replied but highly disappointed that they were planning to vote for the sell off.

Assessments were carried out and it was found that the sell off was neither popular nor economically viable. When ecosystem services, recreation, biodiversity, landscape and carbon sequestration were calculated the entire forest estate in England was valued at a whopping £1,800 million per year.

Luckily other MPs felt differently and in February the environment secretary, Caroline Spelman announced a U turn on the Governments plans stating that:
"I have taken a decision to end the consultation on the future of the public forest estate and I take full responsibility for that," Spelman said. "I am doing so because it is quite clear from the early responses to the consultation that the public and many honourable members are not happy with the proposals we set out."


My MP also wrote to inform me of the Governments actions to:

- “Remove clauses from the Public Bodies Bill which would permit publicly owned forests to be transferred into different ownership.
- Close the consultation on the Future of the Public Forestry Estate.
- Set up a panel of independent experts to consider ho we can better protect our woodlands for the future as part of a broader forestry policy”

Good news eh?! So, this is now going ahead and on the 31st March the panel convened for the first meeting. The 12 members on the panel have experience in a variety of sectors from the RSPB to the ramblers association to the Confederation of Forest Industries (ConFor). First moves are apparently to liaise with grassroots campaigners and stakeholders to decide upon appropriate approaches. The role will ultimately be to advise upon the future direction of forestry and woodland policy and to advise on the role the Forestry Commission should play in implementing this. Comments are required on how to increase woodland cover, enhance public benefits, how to manage spending on forests and the role of Forest Enterprise for commercial resource gains. The panel are due to report to Ms Spelman in the Autumn. Watch this space….