Hi,
I hope you all have been following the debate re National Nature Reserve and Forest Commission Sell Off. Well if not, it is damn near done and dusted; its through Parliament and beyond the Lords 2nd Reading; it was not in either Tory or Liberal manifesto and NOT consulted on prior to legislation . Its been rammed through in a fashion that defies the spirit and conventions of our democracy.
38 Degrees deserve a great deal of credit for their petition, which while a bit inaccurate as least put up a bit of resistance, which has been totally lacking from the established nature conservation NGO's ie FoE, RSPB, WWF and Wildlife Trusts; with one notable exception well done Woodland trust. Where an earth have the others been ? Sitting quivering before the Tory Big Society ?
Not a peep re National Nature Reserves; not a petition not a sound from the entire nature conservation movement. These are very finest ecological sites.
As our beleagured ecology sinks below the pressure of industrialisation and the burden of a populous and extravagant humanity do NGO's have the strength to take the weight off the state's responsiibility ? When the FC costs only 10 million a year and the NNR's a drop in the ocean of the CAP state subsidies. In all honesty who is privatising what when the whole of UK agriculture receives European state subsidies to the tune of £3 billion; much of it directly into the pockets of the Tory Landowners that are providing the votes in the Commons and the Lords. Its a dogma driven shuffling of the chairs.
There is one last chance; influence the Liberals and Cross benchers; pick up a pen and write to the Lords; decry the Forest Sell OFF. How can you sell something like The Forest of Dean or the New Forest and put a PRIVATE sign on it. Its PUBLIC and owned by all of us; keep the PRIVATE signs OUT.
This campaign has been fought by a few individuals largely without the support of the highly financed organisations WWF, RSPB, WILDLIFE Trusts etc etc.
WHY IS THEIR SUCH SILENCE ON THIS ? WRITE TO THE LORDS NOW ! THEY HAVE EVERY LEGITIMATE RIGHT TO THROW THIS OUT. IT WAS NOT IN EITHER MANIFESTO. IT HAS BEEN RAMMED WITHOUT CONSULTATION THROUGH PARLIAMENT.
This is the stuff of dictators; be a cause and make arise the Lords, write and defend the principle that legislation is debated in elections from manifestos and then enacted after consultation.
THROW THE SELL OFF OUT.
Peter Plover
Hi Peter and thanks for your e-mail.
The RSPB is keeping a close eye on this issue, currently the details of the proposal are not yet known so we are awaiting the announcement of the extent of the governments consultation. You can read more about our stance via Mark Avery's blog posts on this here and here, well worth taking a look.
These extracts from the links above illustrates the RSPB's stance at present.
'What we may see is that some forest land is sold - let's make sure they are the right areas.'
' But let's see what government proposes. Maybe we in the RSPB will hate the proposals - and if so then we'll say so, and be as bolshy as everyone else!'
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
I am slightly confused on this. I am against selling conservation areas of forest but as an avid reader of Mark Avery's blog believe this is still yet to reach consultation stage. Quite clearly Peter thinks this is at Lords stage and therefore near implementation. Is it possible to tell us what stage this idea is currently at. It is a comment in its own right if the current position of such radical changes is not understood by the public.
The Cotswold Water park sightings website
My Flicker page
Hi Bob
As far as we can tell the situation is currently as Mark mentioned in his blog.
There is no official date for when the government will release details about the content of their proposals regarding the sell off of forestry land. We are working on the basis that it will be at some point in the next couple of months and we are keenly awaiting this annoucement.
The Bill has gone through the 2nd Reading of the Lords but the government is "consulting" on its proposals. It is quite unbelievable that consultation is occuring after the 2nd Reading in the Lords. I believe they have rammed this process through perhaps because they did not believe the "Coalition" would hold; however normal conventions on procedure have not been followed. There is a clear democratic deficit. This was not in the Manifesto; the Coalition agreement nor was it consulted on prior to legislation so that it may be "improved" by viewing. This is the stuff of a weak doctrinaire government.
Baroness Royall Leader of Labour in the Lords announced her intention to put an ammendment to the Bill at The Speech House in the Forest of Dean before 3000 people on 4 jan. It is to this that I am referring. It is happening in January I believe. It is my hope that these measures will be defeated.
It would seem incumbent on a government to make clear its intentions; this it has not done and this event and atmosphere of profound suspicion and mistrust ; this should be voted down.
Some people just disenchanted labour followers I guess,lets see what the proposals are before banging into coalition,something has to be done whether in manifestos or not.
Babies being born now are in effect in debt like the rest of us for 20 years,labour did not put those figures in manifesto.
As much as I consider it a newcomers right to make postings on here it seems strange to come on and straight away ask RSPB members to go against something their organisation is looking into and no proposals really sorted out even yet.
A point of clarification. The Government cannot sell off NNRs because the vast majority of them aren't publicly owned. They can and probably will, however, "outsource" management responsibilities for these nationally important wildlife sites.
JBNTS
Every day a little more irate about bird of prey persecution, and I have a cat - Got a problem with that?
I see that there was an article about Forest of Dean on One Show tonight
This is the link for the One Show is anyone wants to see the article mentioned on this thread http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007tcw7
I see red when I heard the goverments plans to provide 'themselves'with more money and less responsibilty for land in the UK. Forest of Dean (and other threatened) areas have so much going for them as people need to escape into Green Spaces to recouparate after a hectic lifestyle. Wildlife is the number one priority for species to survive. One area mentioned on One show has been bought and the person has placed a fence with a padlock so it is not considered common land anymore - so there is no access to anyone anymore.
I am surprised that the Rambler groups are not more heavily involved with protests about this situation as they are the first to complain if they cannot use public walkways. We shall see what they do.
The link to the 38 degrees petition is below, I hope you find it helpful & will support this important cause. http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/speakout/MP-forests
Signed the petition! (if it has not been placed here yet or I have overlooked it)
Regards Kathy and Dave
I thought it was important to bring this post up again, I regard it as extremely important that we act now to show our disapproval.
I realise there are members on here who will feel differently, and some may prefer to wait and see how the RSPB acts in this matter. I totally understand and this is not meant to cause offence to anyone.
I just feel deeply troubled by the announcements today and wanted to show my concern in some way. I include two links where those who wish to, may sign the petition. One is The woodland Trust and the other is UKSafari, a lovely site which I have belonged to for years. I believe the petition on UKSafari is the same as blackbird mentions in her post and she has also kindly included a link.
http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.uksafari.com/forestselloff.htm
Please remember that once sold off they are gone forever.
Jane.
Kind regards Jane.
Totally agree that this is worrying times indeed. I truly cannot believe this is happening to be honest.
Although, should I be that surprised? Don't the Conservative party have a habit of selling off everything they can get their hands on?
This new forum is dreadful.
Interestingly they've just had an RSPB spokesperson on Radio 4 Saving Species discussing this. His opinion was that it wasn't necessarily a bad thing for wildlife. Theory being, if I caught his drift correctly, that most private purchasers are likely to be wildlife/conservation organisations/charities, including the RSPB.