Monday, November 1, 2010

British Forests a thing of the past?


enchanted forest-within-a-fore
I knew that the new Conservative government would look for things to privatise, but it never even occurred to me that they’d consider selling off the UK’s natural heritage. Now it transpires they intend to sell around half of the 748,000 hectares of woodland overseen by the Forestry Commission – that’s not just forested land by the way but includes a lot of moorland, heath and brownfield sites – and it will happen fast. By 2020, in fact.
Public access to Forestry Commission land is enshrined in statute, but once it changes hands that will no longer be the case. With very little legal effort the management of the land can be changed to allow golf courses, CentreParcs-style resorts, residential development, and commercial logging which probably would not afford the FC’s balanced approach to biodiversity and landscape.
If you’re a UK citizen or resident, please take a look at the links below and sign the online petition against the government’s plan. Better yet, send the link on to everyone that you’re on speaking terms with. Otherwise, the woods near you might just become a story to tell your grandchildren about.
Really really upset about this.
Andy
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/countryside/8082756/Ministers-plan-huge-sell-off-of-Britains-forests.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-plans-huge-selloff-of-britains-forests-2115631.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/24/forests-government-heritage-private-developers

“They hang the man,
and flog the woman,
That steals the goose
from off the common;
But let the greater villain loose,
That steals the common
from the goose.”

(Anonymous, written around the time of the Enclosure Acts when vast swathes of common land were seized by private landowners)

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