Another thread to pull from the last post is the global economic context in which the UK government is attempting to ‘dispose’ of its forest estate. There has been a lot of welcome debate around this, including some good analysis of some of the issues, and an encouraging amount of protest. However, there has been little, if any, discussion of the links between this sell-off and the increasing corporate investment in bioenergy and plantations.
The Forestry Commission owns 635000 acres of forest, many of which aren’t forest at all, but plantations. These are largely spruce monocultures – perfect for the production of industrial biomass. The current proposals are to sell it all off. Who will be the main purchasers of this land? Community groups concerned about their environment will be offered 25%. Some will go into the hands of new charities. And the rest? I would bet my bottom hobnob that the majority of plantations will end up in the hands of UPM Tilhill, or Shell Renewables, or any of the myriad companies like Plantation Capital (see their website for a laugh).
The Forestry Commission has a cringingly bad track record when it comes to woodland management, but big business has shown that it can get a whole lot worse. The State should not own forests, but multinational corporations certainly shouldn’t.
It’s not only that these plantations will come up for sale, but the sudden glut of land will push prices down. So business can buy up vast amounts of forest for super cheap. And, wtf, any idiot can see that forests and plantations will only get more valuable in the near future. And yet the government is clamouring for a speedy transfer to private ownership in order to help reduce “the deficit”. Which we know, along with the “necessary cuts” and the “age of austerity” is just a bullshit smokescreen. I smell a whole horde of stinking rats.
Tags: management, plantations, the land, woodland
