Search: NGO

Government Warned on Public Forest Estate: Get the Economics Right!

22.01.2013

an economic analysis carried out for Our Forests confirms that both the Public Forest Estate and the Forestry Commission represent excellent value for public money.

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Terroir (sustainable land management systems) – a way forward for forestry & farming?

15.01.2013

More forests can repair the damage done, not least in that most degraded of landscapes of all, the urban landscape. ‘Terroir’, the sense of place we feel when we connect to our landscape, a better way forward?

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Forestry Commission – you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone

13.11.2012

My message to our new environment ministers is this:

Please, DON’T put an NGO between us and those we trust at the Forestry Commission. Particularly over something as important as tree disease and forest resilience to climate change.

Please, DO give the Forestry Commission the resources and freedom it needs to work with us, the public, to advance our multi-purpose forests into a financially and ecologically sustainable future we can be proud to leave our children.

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A Stark Warning for us from our Friends in Ireland: Don’t let them sell your harvesting rights!

04.10.2012

A stark warning for us in England. While we were fighting to save our public forest estate from sell off, our friends in Ireland were doing the same. Like us, they won the fight to keep their public forests in public ownership. However, they are now faced with the harvesting rights of their public forests being sold off to the highest bidder. Our new Secretary of State, Rt. Hon. Owen Paterson has only weeks ago left his position as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. I wonder if he picked up any tips from his neighbours in the Republic of Ireland?

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Taking Green for Granted

01.09.2012

‘This green and pleasant land’ as celebrated at the opening ceremony of the Olympics is due to Britain’s very enviable climate which keeps it green. For how much longer though?

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A Point of View

24.08.2012

I am a commercial forester. I make my living helping my clients grow trees, cut them down and then sell them to other people who make things out of the timber. I want what I do to have the maximum benefits with least damage. I work to make what I do sustainable. I am passionate about what I do – but I operate in a World of real money, real constraints and real opportunities.

These opinions are mine. They are not my company’s.

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Network Rail is starving the urban and peri urban landscapes of the UK of biodiversity

15.07.2012

Network Rail are custodians of the largest green artery to connect our rural and urban landscapes – those few metres of land either side of a rail track our biodiversity depend upon. A charge they do not take proper responsibility for.

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Expert analysis of the Independent Forestry Panel Report

08.07.2012

A friendly analyst within Government has helped SoW understand the shape and depth of the Forest Panels report and suggests how we can help encourage Government to develop the recommendations into forest policy for England’s woodlands and forests, both public and private. Summary The report makes a real attempt to address the impossible task […]

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Meeting of forest campaigners and Lord Taylor, forestry minister – 2 July 2012

03.07.2012

Statement from the forest campaign groups that attended a meeting at DEFRA with forest policy makers… or …How the meeting went!

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Stakeholder or Shareholder; the great ‘greenwash’ party that is Rio+20

19.06.2012

“..we are all in this respect indigenous people fighting to protect our cultural heritage. We all have a right to our landscapes”.

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Friends of Thetford Forest responds to RSPBs’ heathland restoration article

02.06.2012

Alan Spidy, on behalf od Friends of Thetford Forest, responds to the RSPB’s article on heathland restoration..

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NPPF: The Treaty of Eland House

28.03.2012

The NPPF is a return to old school politics and good old Humphrey Appleby lingo (Although the referral to the wrong UN resolution on Sustainable Development is a major embarrassment).

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Heathland re-creation: it’s time to talk. By Friends of Thetford Forest

02.03.2012

Alan Spidy of Friends of Thetford Forest, writes about their concerns of the clearing of woodland for heathland re-creation

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Using Soft Power to Protect Trees by Christopher Neilan

28.02.2012

Chris Neilan is well known for creating the CAVAT system that works out the monetary value of urban trees explains the need to engage communities to protect tree & increase tree planting in their areas…

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A Celebration of Save Our Woods & the Save Our Forests campaign!

17.02.2012

A year ago today the Save our Forests campaign forced Government to halt their sham public consultation and instead set up an Independent Panel on Forestry… Hen takes a look back..

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Happy Christmas from SOW

24.12.2011

2011 has certainly earned its place in future textbooks with regards forestry, conservation and land management in the UK.

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Our Forests press statement re: Independent Panel on Forestry Progress Report

08.12.2011

Jonathon Porritt of Our Forests! Responds to the Forestry Panels Progress Report

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TREES IN MIND – Blarbuie Woodland at Argyll and Bute Hospital

06.12.2011

Hugh Fife, of Reforesting Scotland, tells us about inspiring research at Blarbuie Woodlands, into the ways Woodlands impact on our mental health and well-being…

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