The UK Government has temporarily shelved plans to sell its publicly-owned English forests as it looks to introduce extra safeguards to protect access and biodiversity.
Proposals to offload 258,000 hectares run by the Forestry Commission have attracted cross-party criticism and growing public opposition.
In a statement this afternoon, a spokesman for Defra, said: “The programme of forestry sales announced in the Spending Review in October 2010 will be temporarily suspended until extra protections on access and biodiversity are put in place. Once this has happened, the sales will go ahead.
“This only applies to the 15% of the public forestry estate referred to in the Spending Review. It is not connected to the ongoing consultation on the future management of the other 85% of the public forest estate which Defra announced on 27 January. This open and genuine consultation will continue until 21 April 2011 and is unaffected by today’s announcement.
“The temporary suspension of the Spending Review sales programme is a technical change to ensure that the right framework and robust criteria are in place to meet the commitment from Ministers to protect the public benefits of the forest estate”
In a written statement to Parliament, Caroline Spelman said: “As in previous years, the selection criteria for land in the Forestry Commission England’s forthcoming assets sales programme were published on 27 January.
“In light of the Government commitment to increase protection for access and public benefit in our woodlands, the criteria for these sales will be reviewed so that protections are significantly strengthened following the inadequate measures that were applied to sales under the previous administration.
“Pending this review, no individual woodland site will be put on the market.”
Commenting on today's Government decision, Friends of the Earth campaigner Martyn Williams said: "This welcome announcement buys more time to safeguard our forests.
"But Ministers are still jumping the gun by pushing new laws through Parliament which allow them to sell off forests without any safeguards - the Government must put this on hold, at least until this consultation is over.
"Millions of people are deeply concerned about the possible impacts of these sell-off plans on wildlife and access - and they struggle to see any benefits.
"The Government can't ignore this huge public outcry - Ministers must review this deeply unpopular policy and ask themselves if it's really worth it."
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