I had thought that I would be on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning - but experience shows that you can't count a Today Prog interview until it's broadcast. The democratic future of the people of Egypt really is more important than whether we get a Forest and Wildlife Service which can deliver a better future for our forests. But I will come back to that idea on Monday. And just in passing, I wonder what Mubarak would have thought of the Public Bodies Bill?
Yesterday there was quite a lot of pick up on yesterday's blog about the fact that we don't think that charities would find it easy to pick up management of the New Forest - and that the RSPB isn't volunteering to do it.. This blog was picked up by the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Daily Star, BBC online and a large number of regional newspapers.
And yesterday's announcement on a delay to forest sales is in the Guardian, BBC online, the Mirror and elsewhere.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
Hi Mark,
In the Guardian yesterday you were saying essentially re Sell Off if I paraphrase "no prob with private forestry" and "right woods" "require certain safeguards etc etc" but as I have posted before by what environmental criteria are you acceding to the upland sales particularly in National Parks if FC stewardship is better than private forestry? I would not have thought you can accede to such a policy with regard to RSPB constitution and status.
Again I quote "Of the 256,797 hectares of Forestry Commission land in England, 85,795 hectares fall within National Park boundaries, with large areas in the New Forest, North York Moors, Northumberland, Lake District and South Downs National Parks".
Hands Off Our Forests and No Sell Off in our key uplands sites either (not all of which are in National Parks).
Peter Plover
A day asleep after my night shift I quote from the Telegraph below; while I have for some time being saying that we need to consider the uplands well how right I was. I did nt have the stats but there they are below; there is a massive opportunity with the sort of Forest and Wildlife Service that debate on these pages has helped shape to influence the forest landscapes of our National Parks.
"Chris Reid, senior policy officer at the Campaign for National Parks, which is home to about a third of all Forestry Commission land in England, said: "It is very worrying. Lots of things are potentially under threat if the forest land is sold.
"New owners that weren't public bodies could potentially close off access other than the existing legal minimum provisions.
"They could close visitors centres currently on Forestry Commission land unless they thought they would be moneymaking. They could charge for things like mountain bike trails that are currently free.
"The private estates can do what they like, there are no guarantees.
"There are a lot of benefits of the land being within public ownership; they have economies of scale and can tackle big projects like deer management."
Of the 256,797 hectares of Forestry Commission land in England, 85,795 hectares fall within National Park boundaries, with large areas in the New Forest, North York Moors, Northumberland, Lake District and South Downs National Parks".
I can see a problem with privatising Forestry Commission land. There are numerous organisations which can manage Wildlife Trusts but will commercial enterprises let them and will anyone be interested in the wild life or access to the forestry commission land once it is in private hands .
This government could be seriously under estimating the value of a walk in a wood.
DC
Surely the point is that the future of the people of Egypt will not be affected at all by yet more (over-extended) coverage on the Today programme whereas whether we have a Forest and Wildlife Service in England might be.
My feeling is that when English Nature was absorbed into Natural England, nature conservation lost out to some extent to the focus on "public access". There's a lot to be said for individual bodies with a clear remit.
HOW CLOSE ARE WE TO AN 'EGYPT' here. Policy after policy seems to be written by dimwits. Will we have to wait for 5 - 6 million unemployed! With a good job creation scheme you could run the New Forest. I used to run 24 unemployed here in Cumbria. The work we achieved was amazing. Some of these folk now have full time jobs in conservation. Sadly it seems the wrong people are advising this government. Hopefully my trip to Egypt will go ahead on 9th March!!