Lib Dems suggest putting forests in trusts to avoid privatisation

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/30/lib-dems-forests-trusts-avoid-privatisation-trees

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The Liberal Democrats hope to place Britain's forests in a protected trust to stop them ever being sold off and have committed to planting more than 3.5m trees in towns, cities and villages over the next parliament if they remain in power, Dan Rogerson, an environment minister, has said.

The measures would be introduced through a nature bill that is being drawn up by the party to bring in greater protections for the environment, including enshrining in law targets on clean air and water.

Under the plans, the Lib Dems are suggesting a target of more than 700,000 trees per year, or 3.5m over the course of a parliament, which is threefold the number due to be planted under the coalition's Big Tree Plant scheme that covers built-up areas. It would mean a new tree for every child born over the next five years.

The bill would include targets for clean air and water, a plan to stop natural resources such as peat and wood being harvested at an unsustainable level and put British forests into a trust to stop them being privatised.

It would also increase the penalties for enforcement and punishment of environmental crime such as deliberate water pollution and wildlife crime and use the proceeds for these increased penalties to fund the National Wildlife Crime Unit and the sector of the Environment Agency that tackles pollution-related crime.

The proposals are likely to be seen as an attempt by the Liberal Democrats to woo back voters from the Greens and Labour who may have been frustrated by the party's decision to join the coalition, which tried to sell off some of the UK's forests before abandoning the plan early in the parliament.

"Politicians from all parties have a responsibility to create the conditions for a good quality of life, for better places in which to live and Liberal Democrats take this responsibility very seriously. Future generations have a right to grow up in a Britain with easy access to a diverse, green and healthy natural environment. That is why we will be including a commitment to introduce a Nature Act in our 2015 manifesto," Rogerson said.

"This is an ambitious target. To plant 750,000 trees a year is not easy, but is right. People across the country recognise that our environment matters. We have a duty to safeguard our natural habitat for future generations, and these plans are an opportunity to capture people's imagination."

The proposals will be published later in the summer as part of the Liberal Democrats' pre-manifesto, which will be considered at the party's autumn conference. Around 1m trees will have been planted in mostly urban areas under the Big Tree Plant scheme during the coalition. Separately, around 4m trees are being planted in new woodland, which still falls short of what the Woodland Trust would like to see.

Beccy Speight, chief executive of the Woodland Trust, said the need to safeguard and properly manage the public forest estate and the opportunity for every child to plant a tree were key measures it proposed last month.

"This is a great start, but to fully secure the future of the UK's woodland requires a combined approach of protecting the irreplaceable, restoring that which is damaged and degraded, and adding new and diverse woods to our depleted landscapes," she said. "We are calling on all parties to commit to a series of actions within these broad areas to ensure the creation of healthier, more resilient landscapes for nature and for people. The current unacceptable levels of loss and damage to ancient woodland from development and the increasing impacts of tree disease are particularly pressing issues that we would like to see addressed."