Public forests should stay in public hands

So the Independent Panel on Forestry report has been published.

The stand out headline is that public forests should remain in public hands.  But, the report goes further by calling for the public forest estate to be managed by a securely funded public body, whose remit is focussed on maximising the estate’s full value to people and wildlife. There will probably be a collective sigh of relief for anyone who loves these woodlands and wants to see greater investment so that they realise their full potential.  But there is still detail to work through.

The report also called for:
-       Government to fully value the plethora of benefits woods and forests provide to society, and reward those who provide them.  I thought that the Bishop of Liverpool was right to emphasise this point in his Today programme interview this morning.
-       Government and other woodland owners to give as many people as possible ready access to woodlands, for enhancing health and wellbeing. 
-       Increasing the area of woodland cover from 10% to 15% - using the principle “the right tree in right place”
-       Greater protection, management and restoration of England’s woodland and associated wildlife habitats at a landscape scale.  This should Include a renewed strategy for restoring some of the damaged ancient woodland and open habitats on the public forest estate. 
-       Support for a “green” woodland economy to drive the delivery of public benefits from existing and new woods and forests
-       This is just a snapshot, take a look at the full report here. 

So, what do we think?

Our aspirations for this report were outlined here. So on face value, we have a lot to be pleased about. I was particularly pleased to see the report shining a spotlight on woodland wildlife declines and identifying some of the actions that could contribute to addressing them. If nothing changes, we could lose our woods in a different way. We could lose the diversity of wildlife that makes them so special.

In yesterday’s blog, I outlined the importance of bringing more woodland into management, and I was happy to see this is one of the central themes within the Panel’s report. It points firmly at the role of a “green” economic revival to drive the types of woodland management needed to benefit people and wildlife. If we get it right, then economic woodland management could work hand in hand with increasing woodland access, and fighting wildlife declines. However, government will need to be brave and step in with right mix of incentives and regulation to ensure that this report delivers on its “green” promises.

Next steps

This is a good start but it is now up to the government to decide how to take these recommendations forward.  We understand that we may need to wait some months for this although someone has just pointed out this Defra tweet to me "We’re keeping the public forest estate in public hands, as recommended by today’s #ForestryPanel report ".  The RSPB will continue to make the case that any changes must lead to greater benefits for wildlife and for people.  And, we'll look more closely at the detail and share further thoughts tomorrow.

In the meantime, have a read of the report and let me know what you think.

Juniper woodland, Andy Hay (rspb-images-com)