Proposed Forest Sell Off
01/02/11 16:51
After much anticipation and coverage in the national media, DEFRA have finally announced the opening of the public consultation regarding the future of woodlands and forests in England. The consultation document, The Future of the Public Forest Estate in England, is available at the DEFRA website, (http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/forests/20110127-forestry-consult-doc.pdf) where full details of how to respond can be found. The consultation is open for comment until 21 April 2011.
The document highlights four key principles that it will seek to safeguard in the event of any sale:
to protect and enhance biodiversity;
to maintain public access for leisure and recreation;
to ensure that woodlands continue to play a role in climate change mitigation and
However, it recognises that it is not possible to find a single solution that will enable all four principles to be protected and therefore it proposes that a mixed approach be adopted to provide the necessary protection. This approach will involve many different organisations, groups, charities, businesses and individuals coming together to provide the best solution. These groupings have been broken down into three sectors:
using new or existing charities to manage heritage woodlands (eg New Forest);
allowing civic or community groups to buy or lease woodlands they wish to own or manage;
allow commercial operators to manage forests that are commercially viable, but on long term leases rather than selling the land. This option will enable the Forestry Commission to protect the public interest through lease terms, which would be lost in any sale, as well as generating revenue for the government.
On the face of it, the consultation document appears to answer many questions and address many of the concerns that are being raised in the public arena. However, closer examination of the document raises some questions to which there are no obvious answers. It also subtly highlights some changes that will take place, outside of the consultation process. An example of this is the proposal, already announced, to sell 40,000 hectares of forestry land in the years 2011-2015. This equates to 10,000 hectares per year, against an average sale rate of 900 hectare per year during the period 2005-2010. Furthermore, the document points out that it expects that the bulk of this sale is to come from woodland that has been identified as small commercially valuable woodlands or forests. This sector makes up 20-25% of the existing Forestry estate (currently at 258,000 hectares) and therefore selling 40,000 hectares of this land will remove nearly 20% of the forest estate from the consultation process. There does not appear to be any scope within the document to show how the protection measures that are being consulted upon in this review, will be implemented for the land excluded from the consultation.
Another question that arises is how exactly the proposals will protect the amenity aspect of some woodlands? The document refers to the desire to ensure public access and benefit, but without giving much detail on how this can be achieved. It is more specific on how to limit damage from over felling, development or disease, but it appears to rely on the CRoW Act to provide the protection to public access. This may not actually be beneficial and may allow new “owners” to restrict access.
The final section of the document discusses the future of the Forestry Commission itself. While concerns have been raised in some quarters as to the wisdom of reducing the role of this quango, arguably its most important function, outside of the management of forestry, is in its administrative abilities and its function as a centrally funded research organisation to combat plant disease. Both of these functions appear to be protected under the proposals in the document.
