Posts from the ‘Our Forests’ Category
The Independent Panel on Forestry is due to release their final report on July 4th. Although much anticipated by all those with an interest in the future of England’s trees and forests, it is likely that Government will issue quickly a holding statement and hold back on a fully-considered response for many months afterwards.
Meanwhile, the Vision presented by Our Forests for the future of England’s trees and forests has been well-received right across the sector and by the public at large. The Ginger Group is now keen to hear the views of the public, particularly from the half a million people that objected so strongly to the Government’s original proposals to sell off England’s public forests, in partnership with 38 Degrees.
Recently, 38 Degrees shared a post on their blog about Our Forests, written by ginger group member Jonathon Porritt. He explained why Our Forests are hoping 38 Degrees members would share their views on the Vision. You can read his blog post here.
Our Forests have come up with some questions they’d like to ask 38 Degrees members. You can answer the questions whether or not you’ve read the report. But if you’d like to read it to see more about the vision, you can download a copy here.
The survey won’t take long to fill in, and the researchers looking at the answers won’t see your name and personal details – just the answers that you give.
Gabriel Hemery
Where we could be – with vision, national effort and political support
England’s woods and forests are embraced as vital to the health, wealth and well-being of the Nation and its people – recognised as having a key role in curbing climate change and enabling human society and wildlife to contend with its impacts. The more frequent and violent cycles of drought and downpour predicted by climate scientists at the end of the last century are now a reality. Our woods and forests are classed as a national network of strategic natural defences.
Following the country-wide outcry against its plans to dispose of England’s public woods and forests, the Coalition Government of 2011 changed tack, turning public brick-bats to bouquets by granting the Public Forest Estate (PFE) full and lasting protection. It received international acclaim following the UN International Year of the Forest with a commitment to restore England’s tree-cover over the next 50 years back to what it was at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 – around 15% of our total land area.
This effort proved to be all the more urgently needed following the near decimation of our native oaks by a series of invasive diseases, benefiting from England’s warmer, wetter climate. Spending on research into pests and diseases was substantially increased, with strong public support.[1]
Unable to refute the hard evidence of the economic, environmental and social benefits delivered by well-managed woodland, the Treasury approved a long-term budget line for this visionary initiative – unleashing a collective effort from local communities, councils, businesses, private landowners, conservation groups and public bodies across the country. By 2050, over half a million hectares of new planting has been achieved – England’s 21st Century ‘Domesday Forest’ is on-target. As well as helping the country withstand and adapt to the impacts of accelerating climate change, new woods and forests are making communities across England better places to live, pulling in investment and creating thousands of new jobs.
An equal effort has been directed at bringing long-neglected woodland into positive management. Tens of thousands of privately-owned and community-run woods hum with activity – delivering valuable harvests of timber and fuel for heating homes in addition to providing vital ‘social services’ of carbon-storage, flood protection and a thriving network of wildlife habitats.
By 2050, England’s precious heathland habitats have been cleared of inappropriate plantations and returned to their former purple glory. Our remnant ancient woodlands long overdue protection as ‘the jewels in our woodland crown’, form the cornerstones of the Domesday Forest – all those damaged by coniferisation are now under restoration.
Forty years back, foresters and those seeking to make a living from woodland were an endangered species. In 2012, England’s woods and forests supported just over 100,000 jobs [2]; in 2050, there are double that number, requiring people with a wider range of skills to maximise the many and diverse benefits that well-managed woods provide. Jobs for young people – a key concern in 2012 – have been boosted by the much sought-after National Forestry Apprenticeship Scheme.
As thousands of long-neglected, shaded-out woods have been brought back into active management, so the numbers and variety of woodland wildlife have burgeoned. With sunlight once again reaching the under-storey, dormant seed-banks have sprung to life – bluebells and other woodland plants carpet the forest floor. The decline of woodland birds has been reversed – the nightingale’s liquid song is no longer confined to poet’s verses.
For all the efforts by individuals, communities, private woodland owners and commercial foresters, this vision could not have been realised without the leadership and strategic oversight of Forests for England – the publicly accountable successor to the Forestry Commission. Forests for England (FfE) is tasked with sustaining the character and diversity of England’s existing and future woodland, while ensuring the long-term commercial viability of our woods and forests. Its advisory and research role is underpinned by decades of practical experience on what is still known as the Public Forest Estate (PFE).
To those familiar with the jargon, what FfE does is ‘integrated land use’. To the rest of us, that means making sure our woods and forests offer they best they can, hectare for hectare, for the good of all – producing valuable timber and fuel, providing access and recreation for people, protecting homes and businesses from flooding, and helping our wildlife to hold on during this period of rapid change through a network of linked habitats.
In 2011, politicians questioned whether the country could afford to care for our woods and forests. In 2050, woods and forests are central drivers of a booming low-carbon economy. Vibrant markets exist for timber, woodfuel and carbon-capture. No urban development is conceivable or permitted without an equivalent investment in green infrastructure – trees, woods and forests are as integral to our urban quality of life as energy, water and sewerage systems.
Something else. Beyond their obvious strategic and economic value, the effort to renew England’s woods and forests has drawn people together, creating a sense of community, place, well-being, and that most elusive of cultural concepts, national identity – which like our woods and forests, seemed under threat in 2011.
Reproduced from Our Forests – a vision for England’s woods and forests
References
1 UK government launches tree biosecurity plan
2 Figures for 2008 taken from the Annual Business Inquiry 2009 and Office for National Statistics regional gVA December 2009 published by the Office of National Statistics.
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Our Forests the ‘ginger group’ of leading environmentalists, professional foresters and grassroots campaigners set-up in the wake of the Government’s plans to ‘dispose’ of all the 1,500 woods that make up the Public Forest Estate, is publishing its vision for a future where all England’s woods and forests are recognised collectively as a vital strategic economic and social resource.
A Vision for England’s woods & forests:
- A new ‘Domesday Forest’ of more than 1 billion trees
- All our public woods distanced from the control of ‘Big Government’, and given full and lasting protection for ‘Big Society’
- A new, independent, publicly accountable body, ‘Forests for England’, with the resources and authority to lead on implementing this vision
Our Forests’ vision includes the ambitious but achievable proposal for creating a new ‘Domesday Forest’: an overall area of woodland on a scale unseen since the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 – when 15% of England’s land area was wooded, compared to under 10% currently. This would mean planting 1 billion trees across over half a million hectares by 2050 – equivalent to creating:
- 10 ‘new’ Forests of Dean
- a dozen additional Thetford Forests, and
- replicating the community woods of the Mersey Forest around a further 50 urban fringes.
“Creating a new Domesday Forest is an ambitious, but wholly achievable target, and one which meets the aspirations of the over half million people who came out across the country against the disposal plans. Getting all our woods working, so that they provide the wealth of renewable resources and rich variety of wildlife they are capable of supporting, is vital. Our vision is about creating real jobs, boosting rural economies, and improving the environment and well-being for communities across England.
Where ministers saw assets for stripping, we see a national strategic resource – critical for helping the country curb and adapt to climate change and even more importantly, for demonstrating the scale of sustained effort required. The benefits produced from delivering our vision are substantially greater than the costs. As it stands, the Public Forest Estate delivers goods and services worth £2 billion annually at a cost to each individual taxpayer of just 30p a year.”
Gabriel Hemery
Alongside planting ‘more trees’, Our Forests’ vision prioritises bringing the 60% of private woodlands that are currently neglected into active management – such that they provide maximum benefits to people, the economy and wildlife.
Robust leadership, long-term commitment and secure resourcing are required to deliver this vision. Our Forests believes the Forestry Commission offers the foundation and skill-base for such a new, more independent body; freed from short-term political meddling and more accountable to the public.
Our Forests vision is being launched at a critical time:
- The Independent Panel on Forestry is holding the first ‘hearing’ (13/1/12) following the launch of its Interim Progress Report and is beginning to shape more concrete recommendations to put to ministers in the spring.
- Yet even as those recommendations are being drafted, the Forestry Commission is being forced to make 25% cuts – staff are being laid off; including key posts managing our public woods and forests.
- Despite the halting of the Government’s wholesale disposal proposal, our public woods are not fully protected from disposal, and some are coming under the hammer.
To accompany its vision, Our Forests is putting 3 key demands to the Government:
- No sales of any public woods and forests until full and lasting protection is given to the Public Forest Estate overall.
- Stop the chopping of the Forestry Commission by stealth – the Independent Panel’s recommendations (due in spring 2012) will be academic if insufficient resources of staff and funds remain to put them into practice.
- Repeal the law that states our public woods and forests are ‘owned’ by the Secretary of State (currently, Caroline Spelman who led the disposal proposal).
“Ministers said their motivation behind their ill-conceived disposal proposal was to reduce the influence of ‘Big Government’ and to increase the involvement and influence of ‘Big Society’. Well, that’s what our vision proposes – get our public woods and forests out of the hands of distant, detached ministers only interested in short-term asset-stripping and protect them for everyone, for ever.
Contrary to ministers’ outdated views, many people and communities value the Forestry Commission as part of their local ‘Big Society’, and are willing as taxpayers to support it in looking after our woods and forests.”
Rich Daniels, Our Forests
Over the next few weeks and months, 38 Degrees will be sharing the vision paper from Our Forests among its members, to ask their views about the vision for the future of England’s woods and forests. As Our Forests’ ideas develop in the future, we’ll be drawing on the input from 38 Degrees members and their perspectives will help inform our proposal for the future of England’s woods and forests.
Our Forests vision for the future of England's woods and forests
Our Forests press statement re: Independent Panel on Forestry Progress Report
December 8, 2011
Gabriel Hemery
Today (8th December 2011) the Government-appointed Independent Panel on Forestry published its interim ‘Progress Report’ on its deliberations, since being appointed in March following the Government’s forced U-turn on its plans to dispose of England’s public woods and forests.
Jonathon Porritt of Our Forests said,
“It’s good to see the Panel acknowledge openly what was obvious to anyone who looked at the figures – the Forestry Commission delivers very good value for money for all the public benefits it provides from the woods and forests of the public forest estate.
Defra’s own internal impacts study of the proposed disposal made that clear, but that fact didn’t suit the political agenda of the Government. This welcome acknowledgement by the Panel confirms it was politics not economics that drove the disposal proposal – there isn’t and never was a convincing financial case for disposing of our public woods and forests. Their benefits far outweigh their costs.
As an ‘interim report’, the Panel doesn’t put forward any concrete recommendations, but Our Forests is concerned at the apparent havering over the future role of the Forestry Commission. The majority of people who responded to the Panel and the hundreds of thousands more who forced the Government to halt its plans in the first place, see the Public Forest Estate and the Forestry Commission as indivisible. As far as most people are concerned, the Forestry Commission is part of ‘Big Society’ – accountable to local people, not the distant, detached ‘Quango’ ministers sought to caricature it as.
One immediate action that the Government must take in response to its own Panel’s report is to state unequivocally that no disposal of any public woodland will proceed until a final forward plan for the Public Forest Estate has been set out and accepted by the public.”
Our Forests is producing its own future Vision and long-term strategy for our public woods and forests, as well as looking beyond those. This will be published shortly and made available for people’s input.
Gabriel Hemery
Read the press release on the Our Forests resources page
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Defra’s Independent Panel on Forestry published their long-awaited interim or progress report today.
“Although our Panel was born out of fierce debate over the future of the public forest estate, what has become apparent through our work so far is that we must look at the future of all woods and forests, not just the one fifth managed by the Forestry Commission.” The Right Reverend James Jones Bishop of Liverpool, Chair of Panel
According to Defra’s press release:
“the progress report states that the Panel sees a continuing role for a national public forest estate in England. The Panel sets out a broad vision of providing a wider range of benefits to more people, and will explore the role of not just the public forest estate but all woodlands, including those in other ownerships, in delivering more for society, the environment and the economy.”
Gabriel Hemery
Listen to Panel Chair, Bishop James Jones, on BBC Radio 8/12/2011 (jump to 8:41 minutes)
