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Friday 17th February 2012

"In our opinion, there is little likelihood of this Government ‘doing the right thing’ by way of the Public Forest Estate unless it is strenuously encouraged so to do by all and sundry"

This is the conclusion of an OUR FORESTS meeting held on 6 February 2012 at Forum for the Future, London

Read the complete notes of the meeting here

"...get our public woods and forests out of the hands of distant, detached ministers only interested in short-term asset-stripping and protect them for everyone, for ever".

Rich Daniels, HOOF Chairman and member of Our Forests, writing in Our Forests latest publication (see lead story, centre column)

Reaction from Jonathon Porritt on the The Independent Panel on Forestry's interim report

Jonathon Porritt, founder member of Our Forests, talking at the HOOF rally.

Jonathon Porritt of Our Forests said,
“It’s good to see the Panel acknowledge openly what was obvious to anyone who looked at the figures – the Forestry Commission delivers very good value for money for all the public benefits it provides from the woods and forests of the public forest estate.
Defra’s own internal impacts study of the proposed disposal made that clear, but that fact didn’t suit the political agenda of the Government. This welcome acknowledgement by the Panel confirms it was politics not economics that drove the disposal proposal - there isn’t and never was a convincing financial case for disposing of our public woods and forests. Their benefits far outweigh their costs.
As an ‘interim report’, the Panel doesn’t put forward any concrete recommendations, but Our Forests is concerned at the apparent havering over the future role of the Forestry Commission. The majority of people who responded to the Panel and the hundreds of thousands more who forced the Government to halt its plans in the first place, see the Public Forest Estate and the Forestry Commission as indivisible. As far as most people are concerned, the Forestry Commission is part of ‘Big Society’ - accountable to local people, not the distant, detached ‘Quango’ ministers sought to caricature it as.
One immediate action that the Government must take in response to its own Panel's report is to state unequivocally that no disposal of any public woodland will proceed until a final forward plan for the Public Forest Estate has been set out and accepted by the public.
Our Forests is producing its own future Vision and long-term strategy for our public woods and forests, as well as looking beyond those. This will be published shortly and made available for people’s input.”

DEFRA turns down Freedom of Information request!

Our Forests to make formal complaint against a ruling that is seen as "A manifest abuse of both the broad principles and the specific guidelines under the Freedom of Information Act".

HOOF chairman, Rich Daniels, is an
Our Forests committee member

The full text of this and other issues raised at their last meeting can be read here in the Our Forests minutes.

7th November 2011

HOOF is One Year Old!

Hard to believe but it is a year ago today that HOOF was first formed to fight the forest privatisation menace.

Much has happened in that year but there is still much to do.

To mark the event, Ian Standing, HOOF Secretary, has written a marvellous account of our turbulent campaign which you can read here.

Legendary Forest cartoonist BAZ has drawn this cartoon specially for HOOF

Click on image to enlarge.

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HOOF are founder members of the Forest Campaigns Network

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"Maybe this is the defining moment, the point when people say ' This is not right, this is not the way to proceed' ".

Jonathon Porrit, talking at the HOOF rally earlier this year

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Click here to see the long long list of people and organisations who have pledged to support HOOF.

Welcome to the Hands off our Forest (HOOF) web site

Friday 13th January 2012

Our Forests publishes vision for the future of forests

A new 'Domesday Forest’ of more than 1 billion trees

All our  public woods  distanced from the control of ‘Big Government’ and given full and lasting protection for ‘Big Society’ 
A new, independent, publicly accountable body, ‘Forests for England’, with the resources and authority to lead on implementing this vision

Our Forests, the ‘ginger group’ of leading environmentalists, professional foresters and grassroots campaigners set-up in the wake of the Government’s plans to ‘dispose’ of all the 1,500 woods that make up the Public Forest Estate, is publishing its vision for a future where all England’s woods and forests are recognised collectively as a vital strategic economic and social resource.

Read the full press release, including statements from Our Forests chairman Jonathon Porrit and HOOF's own Rich Daniels here

Or download the full colour, printable, document "A Vision for England's Woods and Forests" here.

Friday 9th December 2011

Independent Forestry Panel interim report:

- England's forests should be expanded

- Forestry Commission represents very good

value for money

Members of the panel visiting a working mine with our own

Rich Daniels (second from right)

The Independent Panel on Forestry published their interim report on 8th of December.

While the broad ranging report made no recommendations - we will have to wait for the Spring and the full report - it did give cause for cautious optimism in that the panel recognises the inestimable value of our forests to the public , believes they should be increased and expanded, and acknowledges the tremendous value for money the Forestry Commission provides.

The reports says, "The panel wants to see a more wooded landscape in England and believes that both the benefits and the costs of forests have been underestimated"

Regarding public ownership of the forests and the Forestry Commission, the panel says, "...we want to make an important point upfront. The net public expenditure on the public forest estate, some £20 million this year, appears very modest and delivers benefits far in excess of this. This level of funding is small in government terms and, to us, appears to represent very good value for money. For comparison, £250million was recently allocated by the Department for Communities and Local government to support weekly refuse collections".

Click the link on the left to download the full report in pdf format.

Tuesday 29th November 2011

HOOF Secretary elected Verderer

Ian Standing, the secretary of HOOF, has been elected to the ancient post of Verderer in an election held in Gloucester Cathedral on Tuesday 29th November

Ian Standing makes his speech of acceptance after taking the oath of office

In an ancient ceremony that dates back centuries, Ian Standing was elected Verderer, following the vacancy left by the death of A M R Watts.

There were two candidates, Ian, and Mr R Guest. By custom, only owners of freehold property living in Gloucestershire (but not in Gloucester) are eligible to vote in this election, which was decided by a show of hands, 132 to 183. Held in Gloucester Cathedral for the first time, the elections attracted a full house.

Read the full transcript of Ian's speech here

Read more about the Verderers on their website here

Thursday 6th October 2011

Government refuses to answer Freedom of Information request

Our Forests to register a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Despite telling Our Forests “we will be able to sort this out fairly quickly” , 3 months and 2 missed two deadlines later there has been no response from the government to our request for information regarding the forests disposal proposal (see earlier article below).

Under the Freedom of Information legislation, a response could have been expected no later than 20 working days following our submission - that would have been Monday, 5th September. However, officials extended the timeline on the grounds of the claimed ‘complexity’ of our questions to the maximum permissible of a further 20 days. That means we should have received an official response by Monday, 3rd October.

Jonathon Porritt, founder member of Our Forests said,

“Our questions were straightforward. Earlier in the year, over half a million people rose up in protest at the Government’s proposals to dispose of all the public woods and forests managed by the Forestry Commission. We simply asked which organisations or other bodies the Government and its officials had met with to discuss taking on some of those public woods and forests. We also asked how much it costs the Forestry Commission to look after them as they currently do, delivering the wide range of benefits not just to the millions of people who visit the sites each year, but to society generally.

Nothing has been forthcoming. Therefore, Our Forests is putting in a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Our Forests has sent a press release to the media and the full version can be read here or by going to Our Forests web site here

Saturday 6th August 2011

Our Forests quiz government over "secret" talks with charities

Concern grows that secret talks may have taken place between DEFRA and the heads of three major charities who sit on the Independent Panel on Forestry.

Our Forests, of which HOOF chair and freeminer Rich Daniels is a member, has submitted a Freedom Of Information request to the Government asking for details of meetings Defra officials have held with organisations such as the RSPB, Woodland Trust and National Trust.

The heads of all three NGOs sit on the Independent Panel on Forestry, and HOOF believes that if they have in fact been in secret talks with the government, this would compromise the independence of the panel.

In a statement, Our Forests said: "Our Forests believe that it is in the public interest for those organisations represented on the Independent Panel to declare publicly what their positions were and are regarding those bodies potentially taking on areas of public wood and forest land. Any past, present or potentially future conflict of interest needs to be out in the open."

Details of the Panel and its members can be found in the article lower down the page.

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