ENVIRONMENTAL: UK Government agrees to protect forests

Campaigning / petitioning group 38 Degrees have announced success in their long-running campaign to 'save our forests'...

Yesterday, after months of deliberations – we have the final, official word from the government that they will do what more than half a million of us asked them to – and protect our nation’s forests for good.

 Congratulations! We’ve really, truly, won.  It was a political defeat, and victory for people power they never saw coming.

In late 2010, the government announced a plan to introduce a new law to allow all publicly owned woodlands to be sold off in the future.

The government might have expected a few predictable protests, but there was nothing predictable about what happened next.

• 538,107 people signed the 38 Degrees petition
•  More than 100,000 of us contacted our MPs
•  We funded an independent poll, which found 84% of the public wanted our forests in public hands
•  Thousands raised nearly £60,000 to pay for ads in national newspapers
•  More than 30 local campaigning groups sprung into action around the country
• Over 220,000 of us helped spread the word on social media

When the government finally did admit they got it wrong, they promised to set up an independent forestry panel to advise them on what should be done next.

Again, 38 Degrees members sprang into action:

Read on.....