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Plantlife’s response to the Independent Panel on Forestry
Plantlife has officially responded to the Independent Forestry Panel's ‘Call for Views’ on the future of England's forests and woodlands.
August 25 2011
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The New Forest. © Beth Newman / Plantlife
Below is a summary of our response. You can download a copy of the full version by clicking here.
The ‘Lawton Review’ concluded that England’s protected wildlife sites, taken in toto, did not comprise a coherent and resilient ecological network; the essence of what needs to be done was summed up in four words: more, bigger, better and joined. This philosophy applies as much to our native woodland as it does to other habitats. However, despite the significant expansion in woodland cover in Britain, there has been a significant decline in specialist woodland plants and other wildlife.
Plantlife supports the targeted creation of new woodland, where there is a clear conservation benefit. In short, the focus should be on quality, not quantity, operating the principle of ‘right tree, right place, right reason’.
The importance of the 258,000 hectare Public Forest Estate (PFE) cannot be overstressed for wild plants. Thus, of England’s local, rare and declining wild flowers, 208 out of the 588 taxa occur within the PFE.
"The importance of the 258,000 hectare Public Forest Estate (PFE) cannot be overstressed for wild plants."
Plantlife's response to the Independant Panel on Forestry.
We believe that this invaluable national asset presents a unique opportunity for demonstrating and undertaking exemplary protection and management, be it the restoration and active management of ancient semi-natural woodland or the realisation of open habitat potential on the scale necessary to deliver landscape scale conservation through the removal of plantation forestry.
Whilst in theory ownership of this estate is not the key issue but rather the effective sustainable management of the resource itself, Plantlife does not believe that the incentives, resources and adequate expertise are yet available to the private sector to deliver such conservation aspirations. Preliminary studies by Plantlife suggest that of the 23 of the richest PFE areas would have seen over 50% largely or wholly ‘sold’ to the commercial sector. Put simply, earlier in 2011, the Government was considering the significant or complete sale of the richest forest areas for wild plants.