Woodlands and You

Description

Brief description of the instrument and its modus operandi

Woodlands and You (WaY) is a gateway to the public use of the Welsh Government woodland estate. It is a process whereby interested parties can submit an application to carry out an activity on the estate, be it an event, a project or a permit to gather an NWFP. A website guides the applicant through the process: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-8J2GJ9 and contains all necessary forms for download. Once submitted, the application gets sent around all NRW stakeholders to their approval or adjustment, including timber harvesting, ecologists, planners and any other staff.

Which problem the instrument is supposed to solve?

In the past, different forest districts and regions had their own ways of doing things. WaY is an attempt to create a common and fair system and to make it easier for people to access the estate. Also as, NRW and what used to be the Forestry Commission are such complicated institutions, WaY is a method of warning all staff at the same time of upcoming activities on the estate, helping to overcome communication problems between departments. The process also includes checks on risk assessments and insurance to make sure activities are carried out safely.

Purpose or main objective / overall goal of the instrument?

To encourage public use of the Forestry Estate

Side objectives/goals of the instrument?

Economic development through forest enterprise, community cohesion through woodland activities…

Innovation content or potential of the instrument?

Useful channel of communication between a government sponsored body and civil society to facilitate access to natural resources.

Which laws and regulations support the implement of this instrument?

Forestry Commission Bylaws 1982, The Natural Resources Body for Wales Order 2013

The initiator/promoter of the instrument?

The idea came from NRW as it helps to fulfil their policy aims to allow more access to the estate they manage

Which organizations are involved in the operationalization of the instrument?

NRW organize the instrument. Llais y Goedwig is currently writing a review of WaY which will be published soon.

How the monitoring is ensured?

It seems as though not much monitoring goes on, permits are issued and work carried out, if damage was caused to the site then this would be treated very seriously, but it seems that on the whole the wish of the picker to have their permit renewed is enough to cause them to work in a respectful way.

How the compliance is ensured?

Retracting of the permit, failure to reissue

How is the overall performance of the instrument?

See the upcoming Llais y Goedwig report on WaY. Since the permits for NWFP harvesting predate WaY, some by many years, often Local Area Managers aren’t using WaY to work through the permit process, instead sticking to their old way of doing things.

Brief description of the context for the emergence of the instrument

As above, in the past, forest districts have done their own thing and created their own systems for getting things done, WaY attempts to systematize the permissions process across Wales’ forest districts and enable internal communication regarding activities on the WGWE

Have any of the items mentioned above changed since the instrument entered into force?

Yes

Details

Yes, hopefully the granting of permissions for NWFP is a much more transparent process

What are the main reasons or drivers behind changes mentioned?

The need to create a transparent, systematic and fair process across the country

Is there any qualitative or quantitative study of the impacts of the instrument?

Yes, please specify

Details

Yes, see the upcoming report on WaY to be published by Llais y Goedwig. I will share this once available

More information about properties

Instrument
Year	2012
Policy area	Forestry
Affected activity	Harvesting/Production
Affected actors	Landowner/land manager, Picker/harvester/hunter
Products	All NWFP
Subject	NWFP
Promoter/initiator	Public
Zone	North West Europe
Countries	UK
Regions (NUTS 2)	West Wales and The Valleys
Focus on NWFP	Direct
Document category
Instrument type	Regulatory, Economic
Legal status	Binding
Geographical scope	National