Commenting on the UK Government’s cancellation of the consultation on selling the Forestry Commission's English estate, Scottish Wildlife Trust Head of Policy Tony King said:

“The Scottish Wildlife Trust is pleased that the UK Government has learnt from the experience of the Scottish Government and has binned the sale of the English forest estate; cross-border biodiversity is important for Scotland.  The groundswell of heart-felt opinion shows that people care passionately about nature. 

“We hope that this welcome development will help the Forestry Commission GB to retain conservation expertise in-house to the benefit of Scottish biodiversity.  Cuts already announced, however, mean that much damage has already been done.  Research and expertise will still be lost and conservation in Scotland may suffer without very careful planning by FCGB.  We urge the Forestry Commission to put biodiversity first and protect Scotland’s wildlife for the future.”