public forest estate

SUCCESS! Public Forests to be named as exempt in the Infrastructure Bill!

06.11.2014

It’s with great joy that we can tell you that Government will produce an amendment that will exempt our Public Forest Estate from the Infrastructure Bill.  In two weeks time, at the third and final reading of the bill in the House of Lords before it goes to the House of Commons, we will see […]

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‘Crystal clear’ commitment from Govt made in new ministerial statement. So lets see it crystal clear in the Infrastructure Bill..

05.11.2014

As expected and warned about in my last post Lord Ahmed has published a Ministerial Statement (this is not law, this is just a written statement) that gives Government’s commitments not to transfer any part of our public forests to the Homes and Communities Agency (while the land remains in its ownership – whatever that means?) and they […]

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HOUSE OF LORDS: EXEMPT FORESTS FROM THE INFRASTRUCTURE BILL

05.11.2014

Over 140, 000 people have signed a 38 Degrees petition to exempt our publicly owned forests from being transferred for development – again.   This should send a message loud and clear to members of the House of Lords who are debating today whether or not to include an exemption for our public forests in the appalling […]

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Parliament’s New Chainsaw – Petition to fight the Infrastructure Bill

28.10.2014
Thumbnail image for Parliament’s New Chainsaw – Petition to fight the Infrastructure Bill

Hands Off Our Forest and SoW have been asked by many, many people to create a petition to help fight the worrying Infrastructure bill. So here it is! Please do have a read, sign and share. Thank you!  Save Our Forests and Public Land, Amend or Scrap the Infrastructure Bill! ‘PARLIAMENT’S NEW CHAINSAW: The Infrastructure Bill poses […]

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Infrastructure Bill debate on Nov 5th – Join activists for day of action!

27.10.2014
Thumbnail image for Infrastructure Bill debate on Nov 5th – Join activists for day of action!

  Update from HOOF – www.facebook.com/groups/infrastructurebill We have now heard that Clause 21 of the Infrastructure Bill (re public land transfers) will be debated and voted on in the Lords on NOVEMBER 5. We don’t have long to stop this. We are calling on everyone to lobby Lords to ask them to back the amendment […]

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Parliament’s New Chainsaw – The Infrastructure Bill

18.10.2014

UPDATE: Due to many requests for a petition we have created one which you can find here: SAVE OUR FORESTS & PUBLIC LAND! Amend or Scrap the destructive Infrastructure Bill Please sign and share! Thank you.   Article by Owen Adams of Hands Off Our Forest (HOOF)  DID you know legislation is currently being pushed […]

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A Public Forest for All – Prices Start From £600 a Weekend

09.09.2014

A Public Forest Estate for the English cannot be allowed! Whilst forestry makes money, this money clearly doesn’t go into the right pockets. photo credit: Hands Off Our Forest  Development in our public forests is about to commence on a large scale. The timing is perfect; just the right amount of time since the successful […]

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Forest Vision – Transforming the Forestry Commission

08.07.2014

Review by Pip Howard Early into the campaign against the Public Forest Estate sell off plans by the Coalition government, it became clear that many in the media, particularly many newspaper columnists, were drastically out of date with regards their viewpoint on the Forestry Commission, indeed continually around 20 – 30 years out of date. […]

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Forest Campaigns Network disappointed that Queen’s Speech did not include bill to protect England’s Public Forests

04.06.2014

  Members of the Forest Campaigns Network are disappointed and puzzled that the Queen’s Speech did not include a draft Forestry Bill.   The Government has squandered its final opportunity to introduce legislation to give lasting protection to the public woodlands of England, which are enjoyed by 40 million people annually. Our woodlands remain at […]

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Coalition of grassroots forest campaigners, forest industries and environmental NGOs call for Government to pass law to protect England’s Woodlands

28.05.2014

The Forest Campaigns Network, Our Forests and Save Our Woods have joined voices with the Ramblers, Confor, Woodland Trust, The Wildlife Trusts and 38 Degrees to urge David Cameron to include the draft forestry legislation in the Queens speech on June 4th. This coalition of organisations gives voice to hundreds of thousands of people across England […]

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Forest Campaign Groups call for forestry legislation to be in Queens Speech

15.05.2014

It may have been quiet on the SoW website recently but plenty has been happening in the forest campaign. Many forest campaign groups have spread the word in their communities and sent letters to the Prime Minister and members of the Cabinet encouraging them to include the proposed new forestry legislation in this June’s Queens […]

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It’s time to get the draft forestry legislation into the public domain for debate.

06.02.2014

We need to know what the proposed safeguards against the privatisation and exploitation of our English public forests are. Will this Government take the risk in the build up to the General Election and put the draft forestry bill into parliament for public scrutiny? If they believed in the current offering from DEFRA and the Forestry Commission, why on earth wouldn’t they?

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Public Forest Estate – an update

28.01.2014

As the long grass turns to scrub, the big question hanging on our lips this past 3 YEARS is ‘what will Government DO with our Public Forest Estate?’

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Forestry expert speaks out on proposals for our public forests

10.09.2013

Forestry expert, Rod Leslie, warns against an uprising from the grassroots if Govt gets it wrong over our public forests

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England’s largest environmental NGOs voice concern over new proposals for our public forests

10.09.2013

England’s largest environmental NGOs voice concern over new proposals for our public forests

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NGO concern as UK Government releases its consultation on biodiversity offsetting

05.09.2013

Today, the UK Government published a long-awaited green paper on its proposed plans to implement biodiversity offsetting.

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Biodiversity Off-setting and Invertebrate Conservation

02.09.2013

Biodiversity off-setting represents a denial of any distinctive ecological value as the underlying assumption is that one group of organisms (an ecosystem) can simply be replaced by another.

At a more specific level, there are several reasons why off-setting from the perspective of invertebrate conservation is doomed to fail.

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Forestry Commission for the Future: e-Petition Launched!

25.08.2013

    The Forestry Commission (FC) has provided Great Britain with a verdant rich tapestry of woods and forests enjoyed by the public for nearly 100 years.  The UK Government, however, is about to embark on an exercise to set up new bodies – breaking up and tearing the heart out of the FC. We […]

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Our Forests challenges Independent Panel on Forestry

03.08.2013

Bishop gives voice to growing unease over future of public woods and forests.

Latest Government plans raise more questions, rather than allaying fears.

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The Future of Our Forests – What’s happened DEFRA?

11.07.2013

There’s plenty to be happy about but there are a few things that stand out as being a massive failure by Government to listen to the people that enabled this once in a hundred year process to occur.

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