Key Facts
The public forest estate is managed for multiple objectives including timber, recreation and biodiversity conservation.
Access, Health and Tourism
- The public forest estate provides 44% of the England’s accessible woodlands (through only 18% forest ownership!)
- It is estimated that there are 40 million visits to the public forest estate.
- There is no legal requirement to allow access for cycling or horse riding under CRoW, but the public forest estate does so.
- There is no requirement to maintain forest walks, provide car parks or generally encourage and make access easier, but the public forest estate does so.
The Forestry Commission have published case studies on their access and health work.
- Case study into delivering health opportunities in Chopwell Woods. Click here for pdf.
- Case study of Moors Valley play trail. Click here for pdf.
- Case study of sustainable tourism in Yorkshire. Click here for pdf.
Biodiversity
- The public forest estate provides a disproportionately high amount of the ecosystem services generated by woodlands in England (estimated at £600m)
- The public forest estate contains 9,000ha of National Nature Reserves and 80,000ha of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI’s)
- 99% of SSSI’s managed by the Forestry Commission in England are in favourable or recovering condition which is greater than that achieved by any other significant SSSI manager in England in the public, private or charitable sectors. The government target for the end of 2010 was 95%.
- There are over 100,000 ha of priority habitats on the estate, including ancient woodlands, heathland and bogs. The Forestry Commission are one of the largest managers of heathland in NW Europe.
The Forestry Commission have published case studies on their biodiversity work.
- Case study into sustainable wetland restoration in the New Forest. Click here for pdf.
- Case study into enhancing wildlife habitats. Click here for pdf.
Ancient Woodland
- The Forestry Commission are actively engaged in ancient woodland restoration, and are able to help inform policy and best practice guidelines through direct public ownership and management. One of the most important elements of restoration is appropriate pace and scale, it is not just about the raw figures of how much has been restored so far (click here for more details).
The Forestry Commission have published case studies on their ancient woodland work.
- Case study of Keepers of Time in action. Click here for pdf.
Community Involvement
- All public woods and forests are covered by plans which have been developed through consultation with local communities and statutory agencies.
- The public forests estate encourages and supports a growing number of volunteers as community rangers providing an increasing range of local services.
The Forestry Commission have published case studies on their community work.
- Cast study tackling rural depravation. Click here for pdf.
- Case study engaging coalfield communities. Click here for pdf.
- Case study into offenders rehabilitation. Click here for pdf.
- Case study into engaging with minority ethnic communities. Click here for pdf.
Sustainable management
- All Forestry Commission forests are independently certified against the internationally recognised Forestry Stewardship Standard and Pan European Forest Certification. This means that they have to be well managed and the Forestry Commission are regularly audited. The Forestry Commission was the first forest service in the world to have all its woodlands certified as being well managed.
- Only 15% of private woodlands are certified.
- The Certification does not go to the forest, it goes to the manager (i.e. Forestry Commission)
The Forestry Commission have published case studies on their sustainable management work.
- Case study of durable community woodlands. Click here for pdf.
- Case study helping to conserve the South Wests woodlands. Click here for pdf.
Timber Production
- The income from timber sales is used to help offset the cost of providing public benefits.
- The public forest estate contributes around 10% to our domestic timber market needs (over 82% is imported).
- Of home grown timber, the public forest estate supplies over 50% as the majority of private woodlands are under managed.
- The Forestry Commission provide the majority of timber through ‘Standing Sales’. The private sector carry out the felling operations and take the timber to sawmills.
- The Forestry Commission are committed to providing long-term stable supplies. This has enabled skills to be retained in the timber market sector and significant private investment to be secured in wood processing.
The Forestry Commission have published case studies on their timber production work.
- Case study into Egger UK. Click here for pdf.
- Case study creating a sustainable woodfuel market. Click here for pdf.
Public Ownership and Management
- The cost of having the Forestry Commission manage England’s public forests costs less than 30p per year for each person in England.
- An impact assessment on the proposals by DEFRA indicated that potential costs will outweigh potential benefits for all mixed model proposals.
- In 2009 a detailed study of the long term role of the public forest estate was carried out by the Forestry Commission. It reported that public forests were good value for money providing multiple social and environmental benefits and concluded that public ownership was essential in supporting the estate.
- A recent YouGov poll found that 84% of people agreed the woods and forests should be kept in public ownership for future generations, while only 2% disagreed.
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13 Responses to Key Facts
Pingback: Government reafirm public benefits to be protected « Save Our Forests
You can see a Google map of the affected forests at bit.ly/saveourforests
I think you could usefully draw attention to a few other facts
1. DEFRA has already recognised that “attrition” in the past has been highly damaging of biodiversity but there is absolutely no suggestion that DEFRA will prevent it happening to woodlands.
2. Mr Jim Paice MP (at the Lords Committee in December) : “We think, and this is one of our objectives in disposal, that there are ways of improving commercial returns and generating more returns from leisure and other, currently unprofitable, activities.”
Woodland sales will mean that corporations could buy and they will want high returns – forestry operations will have to be optimised for profit – not biodiversity. They will seek to optimise “development” potential by either developing trashy “services” or sell off marginal land for building. They will want tax incentives or less planning control to get their returns. The planning system is a complete farce when it comes to environmental protection and is undoubtedly the biggest reason for attrition. There are suggestions that planning law will be loosened even further already.
3. Private buyers are already responsible for fragmenting some of what is left of ancient woodland and rarely have ecological expertise (see the John Clegg website Knelle Woods – 69 acres ancient wood sold in 9 lots!)
4. Mr Jim Paice MP (at the Lords Committee in December : “We have to persuade the general public that a tree is just a very aged plant that, like any other plant, comes to the end of its life. That is the point at which you harvest it, hopefully use it sustainably, and replace it.”
Any conservationist knows that ancient trees are virtually lost from the landscape already and are vital for biodiversity. Mr Paice does not seem to understand this.
5. Mr Jim Paice MP (at the Lords Committee in December) : ” …However, all the protections remain in place. We are not going to lose any woodland cover through any of these proposals.”
What protections?????
Pingback: Save our Forests
Note to Paul Beevers. The protections are listed above. Such as *any* forest owner requiring a license to cut down more than 5cube of timber in any 3 month period.
5 cube = 1 small tree.
Or … in other words …. there’s already a huge amount of regulation in place, including of private forests, and it would be childs play to include such regulations in terms of sale.
Nothing to see here, except people trying to whip up panic on a false prospectus.
Note to Mr. Wardman
It appears you were absent from timber mensuration classes.
5 cubic metres = one small tree? You are an ass.
Well said Mr Ives, slightly wide of the mark to say the least! Actually it’s 5m3 for your own use and only 2m3 if your plan to sell the wood. But using the 5 m3 you could fell dozens of small trees per calendar quarter, not to mention those that you deem to be diseased, dying or dangerous and annually that adds up to hundreds of trees in an average woodland. Young trees below 4 inches at felling height are exempted, as are thinnings (below 5 inches) and coppicing below 6 inches. But getting a felling licence is not hard, just download the form and fill it in. Remember to go for selective felling rather than clear felling (so there is no reason to post the application) and bobs your uncle, off you go. Don’t forget to apply for the replanting grant a the same time, Once that’s done flog the woodland on (minus the cash from the crop) to the next owner. Nice one.
Pingback: Key Facts « Save Our Forests « CJMPAS
There is an issue about E S W that is important. If the standard of flexibility of access vary across internal national Borders. Apart from disadvantaging English residents compared to opportunities in Celtic home nations. Overseas tourists as well as English forest users may avoid the non main forests to avoid conflict or confusion. This will have a debilitating effect on development of rural tourism in regions well served by state forest estate at present. Small private businesses likely to be the greatest losers as a result
Much has already been done and as such is “a Forestry Commission giveaway to charities and a large commercial lease-off”
www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/woodland-activities/what-does-the-forestry-commission-consultation-really-say/#more-5013
Some of the Key Facts you present appear to misrepresent the true picture of the industry, particularly of the private forestry sector.
Please publish your sources for each of these Key Facts.
As for your Case Studies, there are just as many available from the private forestry sector. I am interested whether you would be prepared to publish these on here also?
Hi Erika
Weez beat us to it below in their comment, as they say this site represents a campaign against privatisation of the public forests, it is not an anti-private forestry vehicle.
All of the key facts above have been taken from publicly available information from the Forestry Commission, DEFRA and Hansard reports from recent forest debates.
As far as I know, key facts are from FC & DEFRA published material (as with the case studies). I think it would be a bit unwealdy to publish sources evreywhere, maybe the webmaster could help if you have something specific in mind.
I agree that there are plenty of examples of good quality management going on in the private sector. My understanding is that the purpose of this site is to campaign for the current FC estate to remain in public ownership, managed by an appropriately resourced FC.
I am therfore not suprised that it is focussing on FC woods!