Over the last five financial years the Forestry Commission has being selling on average almost 900 hectares of land each year. In 2010, ministers announced that a further 40,000 hectares (representing 15.5% of English forests owned by the Forestry Commission) would be sold over the four year period 2011/12 to 2014/15.
England’s premier “heritage” woodlands such as the Forest of Dean will be handed free to a new national charity or to existing charitable trusts. However, communities and environment groups will be invited to buy thousands of hectares of land, in addition to large areas of commercial woodland that will be sold on 150-year leases to private companies.
A consultation, running from 27 January 2011 for 12 weeks, has been launched to invite views on the proposal put forward to deal with the future ownership and management of the public forest estate in England.
Campaigners warn that selling off public forests will lead to woodland being destroyed and not maintained, and the public being barred from access to the land. They fear that some sites in time may be vulnerable to developments such as housing estates and golf courses.
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman has responded to concerns saying that disposing of the land would enable the government and the Forestry Commission to focus on their most important roles and allow those who are most involved with England’s woodlands to play a much greater role in their future. She claims the sell-off could raise £150-250m over 10 years and highlight that public access will be maintained and biodiversity protected.
Opinion polls suggest over 80% of the public wants to keep English forests in public hands and online petition Save Our Forests has been signed by more than 520,000 people.
Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below, or why not have your say by contributing to the consultation at http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-8D3G4M.
Find out more about the author of this article, Sean Logan
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