A NEW Forest organisation has called for the abolition of the Forestry Commission.

As part of a government consultation on the future of forestry and woodland policy in England, the New Forest Association has called for the commission to be replaced and conifer plantations phased out in favour of traditional broad-leaved forest.

The 144-year-old association, which aims to champion and protect the heritage and ecology of the New Forest, has made the radical suggestions in its response to the Independent Panel on Forestry this month.

Over the past 200 years, the NFA says large conifer plantations used for intensive commercial forestry have reduced the beauty and biodiversity of much of the New Forest, rendering it ‘sterile’.

And it believes that in order to repair this damage, the historic broad-leaved woodlands of the forest should be allowed to develop naturally, providing sustainable products for the local economy.

Its response to the panel said: “Management of the New Forest by the Forestry Commission is merely an accident of history.

“The forest owes its unique character and survival to the commoners grazing their stock, which has brought about the open heaths, lawns, pasture woodlands and wetlands we see today.”

Peter Roberts, NFA chairman, added: “The New Forest has enormous potential for increasing its biodiversity and landscape beauty, as well as its value for recreation.”

“At present, many of its habitats are in poor condition as a result of mismanagement in previous decades. There is an urgent need for habitat restoration, to address this problem.

“Although the Forestry Commission’s management of the Open Forest heathland has been carried out well in recent years, restoration is held back by the subsidised forestry culture and by the large swathes of conifer planting, which fragment internationally rare habitats, introduce diseases and damage the archaeology of the New Forest.”

A spokesman for the Forestry Commission said: “The Independent Panel on Forestry is currently seeking views and all have a right to express their opinions in response.

“The Forestry Commission will not comment on these individual responses – they are to be fed directly into the Independent Panel and the Government will respond once they have received the panel's report.”