Archive

CWA Blog

A belated cheer for the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, which became law a few weeks ago. Amongst its many provisions* it amends the Forestry Act of 1967 to permit the Forestry Commissioners to "delegate their functions…to such community bodies as they consider appropriate": in effect to allow the leasing of land to communities for forest management purposes.

We have been arguing for this for a very long time: the absence of FCS leasing has been a big hole in the menu of opportunities for communities to engage with forestry over the last decade. Leasing won’t work for every circumstance or for every group, but with raising funds for acquisition currently problematic, it will provide for some a very welcome alternate route to community management.

Whilst our assumption is that leases will be subject to the same sort of tests as acquisition via the National Forest Land Scheme, there’s still a lot of detail to be worked out: duration and valuation of leases, clarification of roles and responsibilities, etc, and then there is the thorny question of whether the Lottery will support development of leased assets. But for now we’re just pleased that the legislation has finally been passed…and would like to acknowledge the work of those who made it so!

* You can see the entire Bill as passed here

Next entry: In Transition?

Previous entry: More commiserations...

Add Your Comment Here