The Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF) has sounded a warning at the government’s plans to sell part of the Forestry Commission estate and increase community ownership of forests.
The ICF said it was concerned about the “lack of professionalism” that would be involved in the changed public forests environment after any sale.
The government’s forest sale proposals, unveiled last November, are part of a shift from big government to “big society”, with a growing role for the private sector and civil society in ownership and management of woodlands and forestry.
The ICF said plans to increase community ownership of forests in England needed to be centred on the skills of the professional forester.
“There is wide support for the government’s aims of enabling both communities and professionals to have greater freedom,” it said.
“However, industry maintains that transfer of the nation’s forests to community ownership needs to be managed so that the skilled professionals who keep England’s forests in good heart are able to continue this work.”
ICF executive director Shireen Chambers said communities needed resources to enable them to take on woodland management “and we need to make sure that government plans to take account of this”.
