Deforestation plan for Britain which has split green groups
Forests covering an area the size of the Isle of Wight could be chopped down under controversial Government plans which would increase the nation's carbon emissions by an amount equivalent to putting an extra 172,000 cars on the road.
By Jasper Copping, Telegraph.Co.Uk, 09 May 2009
The proposal would see up to 116 square miles (30,000 hectares) of English woodland cleared and turned into open heathland.
Conservationists say the move would help to boost numbers of rare birds, such as nightjars, woodlarks and dunlins; reptiles like the sand lizard; insects, including solitary bees and the tiger beetle, and rare plants like the lesser twayblade.
However, it would cost taxpayers £61 million to carry out and critics say it would set back the fight against climate change as there would be fewer trees to "lock up" carbon emissions.
The scheme has been drawn up by the Forestry Commission. According to its own calculations, the forest clearance would increase England's net annual carbon emissions by 0.1 per cent or 506,000 tonnes – equivalent to putting an extra 172,000 cars on the road.
Critics say it would also put people in forestry industries out of work and increase the UK's reliance on imported timber.
The scheme has caused division among Britain's environmental organisations.
Conservation groups like the RSPB strongly back the plans to create a more "open habitat" for wildlife. Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have both refused to condemn the scheme.
But the plans are strongly opposed by the Green Party.
Spencer Fitz-Gibbon, spokesman for the Green Party, said: "Climate change is the most pressing issue at the moment and we would be in favour of keeping the woodland.
"It is able to lock up carbon and provides a good habitat for wildlife itself. Also, in the future, we are going to have a more sustainable economy we are going to want to produce more wood in this country, either for timber or for biomass to generate electricity."
Stuart Goodall, chief executive of the Confederation of Forest Industries, said: "There is very little planting taking place elsewhere, so the level of forest cover would be reduced and England would be a country that was deforesting at quite a rate.
"There are already areas of existing heathland in poor condition. There is a strong argument that rather than cutting down trees, releasing carbon and putting people out of jobs, we would be better off spending a smaller amount of money ensuring these other areas of heathland are better managed."
The Forestry Commission is currently considering targets for how much land should be cleared.
The maximum option is to chop down 116 square miles over a 10 to 15 year period.
The minimum option is to clear 23 square miles (6,000 hectares) over the same period. Ministers will set a target following a public consultation.
If the maximum option was taken, it would represent 15 per cent of the The Forestry Commission's entire estate.
However, it is more likely that some of the woods cleared would be privately-owned, with landowners receiving grants from public funds to turn their land over to open habitat.
The Forestry Commission claim that their own figure in the consultation document stating the scheme would increase England's carbon emissions by 0.1 per cent is only a "ballpark figure".
They say the impact would be closer to the equivalent of about 35,000 extra cars on the road.
Robin Wynde, biodiversity policy officer at the RSPB, said: "On the grand scale, the impact on carbon is going to be very, very small. We are pushing for the upper end of the scale (of deforestation).
"We need an ambitious policy with ambitious targets. Progress on recovering lost habitats and restoring areas to open habitats has been dismal and we really hope the Government is not going to blow this opportunity.
"We have for decades thought that planting trees is essentially a good thing – and it is, when it is in the right place. But commercial forestry plantations have been put on valuable habitats and now we have a chance to restore some of them."
Although the Forestry Commission has not identified specific areas of woodland to clear, heathland restoration schemes have already taken place in the New Forest, Cannock Chase, Sherwood Forest and the Forest of Dean.
Currently, around 1.9 square miles (500 hectares) a year are returned to open habitat.
Dominic Driver, from the Forestry Commission, said: "During the last century, large areas of health and moorland and grassland were planted with conifers. That was the focus of forestry at the time.
"But those types of open habitats are now recognised as highly valuable, particularly for wildlife. We need a national policy framework to balance the differing interests."
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