Victory! Government to scrap plans to sell our forests

Victory! The Guardian, BBC and Independent are reporting that the government is about to scrap plans to sell our forests.

Over half a million of us should feel very proud of what we’ve achieved together. Let’s keep watching but also celebrate what we’ve done!

We’ll update this blog with more news as it comes out but here are some quick highlights of the campaign:

• Thousands of 38 Degrees members voted to launch the Save Our Forests campaign in October 2010 when the government first announced their plans
• Over 500,000 38 Degrees members signed the “Save Our Forests” petition
• Over 100,000 38 Degrees members emailed or called their MPs urging them to stop the forest sell off
• Hundreds of 38 Degrees members donated to fund a people-powered YouGov poll which found that 84% of the public wanted the forests kept in public hands
• Thousands of 38 Degrees members chipped in nearly £60,000 to pay for ads in national newspapers to highlight that 84% of the British public opposed the forest sale.
• Over 30 local groups around the country sprung up to campaign to stop the sell-off
• Over 220,000 38 Degrees members shared the campaign on Facebook

Update 1: Here are a few more news reports:

• Sky News – Forests Sell-Off Plans ‘Facing the Axe’
• Sky News Blog – Forest Sell-Off – “great example of people power”
• Independent – Forest Farce: Cameron to axe sell-off policy
• Telegraph – David Cameron in forest sale climbdown
• Press Association – U-Turn on forests sell-off expected
• Guardian – Forests sell-off abandoned as Cameron orders U-turn
• Channel 4 News – Government expected to abandon forests sell-off

Update 2: We were far from the only group working to stop the forest sell-off. It was achieved by so many of us working together.
Fantastic local groups, up and down the country, campaigned day and night to get these proposals scrapped.

Meanwhile, a host of famous faces lent their support to the campaign and over 530,000 of us signed our petition.

Update 3

Here are a few tweets about the campaign:

We’ve saved our forests! The government has just announced that they’re going to scrap the forest sell-off. >Well done @38_degrees & signersless than a minute ago via TweetDeck