woodland
The Independent Panel on Forestry -set up by the government after it’s disastrous original decision to sell them off to the highest bidder caused uproar – published it’s progress report last week. The full report is due out in the spring of 2012 when it will make a number of recommendations.
Reading the progress report just reconfirmed how much value people give to having a fully accessible and publicly owned forest estate. Clearly the public don’t trust having the forests and woodlands of England handed over to private individuals or companies no matter how strong;y legislated access rights are.
42,000 responses to review of England’s woodlands.
Many of the responses that the panel took in to account – more than 42,000 responses were received - valued the work and investment of the Forestry Commission in England to making the woodlands accessible for all. Many also saw the public woods and forests as an essential part of their lives for pleasure, health and connecting back with nature.
The interim forestry report highlights just how low-cost our public forestry estate is and represents extremely good value for money. The annual cost of England’s forestry and woodlands is £20 million. That’s excellent value for money when compared to Eric Pickle’s £250 million grant to bring back weekly bin collections.
55% of people in England live within 4 km of a woodland.
The report also points out just how widespread woodlands are with 55% of people living less than 4Km from a woodland of at least 20 ha and estimated 250 – 300 million visitor days each year to woodlands. That’s over 5% of all days out being taken in a woodland. With increasing austerity and pressures on people’s incomes that number is sure to increase as a picnic in a wood or forest will offer a cheap family day out.
Woodlands cover about 10% of England and the publicly owned forestry estate makes up about 20% of this land cover. Public forests and woods are scattered across the length and breadth of England and most people will be able to find a public woodland reasonable close to home.
More than 50% of England’s woodlands not managed.
Forestry Commission land is particularly valuable as it is actively managed for a range of benefits. This makes public woodlands valuable for recreation, nature and the economy. Surprisingly the report has discovered that over 50% of woodlands in England are not managed at all. This could be because the largest category of woodland owners are personal owners and have no motivation for managing the woodlands.
New woodland creation in England has also seen a steady drop recently. Between 1976 and 1990 new woodland in England was created at about 2000 ha each year. Between 1990 and 2004 new woodland planting increased to between 4000 and 6000 ha a year. Since 2004 the rate of new woodland creation has dropped and currently stands at about 2500 ha a year. Almost all the new forests and woods created with public funding have been in the private sector with the public forest estate remaining stagnant in size.
Forestry Commission land accounts for 44% of publicly accessible woods.
Despite the Forest Commission only owning 18% of the woodlands and forests in England it accounts for 44% of the accessible amount of woodlands in the country. This high percentage of accessible land reinforces how important it is for the woodlands to stay in public hands. Woodlands and forests in private ownership are just not made available for the public to enjoy despite the public funding of woodlands creation and the extremely generous tax breaks that woodland owners receive from the public purse.
One of the important things that the interim report points out is that while the Forestry Commission should be free to buy and sell land as part of its normal trading activities to remain a viable and vibrant enterprise it should not be forced to sell land to meet shortfalls in funding. This has happened over recent years and needs to stop as it can undermine the entire estate viability.
Independent panel to look at ways to open up woods to public.
The interim report mentions a number of areas where further research is being taken to produce recommendations about the future of England’s woods and forests. This includes looking at ways to open up privately owned forests and woods to the public.
When the progress report was published the Right Reverend James Jones Bishop of Liverpool who chairs the Panel said: “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.
“Through the 42,000 responses to our call for views, the public expressed their passion for forests as a place of recreation, to connect with nature and as a vital source of resources. These responses, along with the many people we have met on our visits, have helped inform our report.”
“For now all of our work, especially in relation to the woods and forests outside of the public forest estate, needs further development in the run up to making recommendations in our final report next year. But as ever the Panel are dedicated to further exploring these emerging themes.”
External sites:
DEFRA: Independent Panel of Forestry progress report. (pdf)
