Community Woodlands Association

 

All Projects

» Arts, Culture, Heritage Network
» Networking and Sharing of Information
» Training
» ELAV: Enhancing local activity and values - An International Community Forestry Project
» Forestry Commission/Community Partnerships, Research

CWA Project Showcase

Arts, Culture, Heritage Network

Following the success of a theatre tour by te POOKa during Sept and Oct 07 as part of Scotland’s year of Highland Culture, a Scotland wide steering group has been established to develop projects in arts, culture and heritage.  These projects will use woodlands as venues and ......

.... the steering group will work to secure funding to deliver the ideas coming forward from the wider network.

CWA have appointed a coordinator to help the sector develop the network of groups interested in using their woodlands as venues for the arts.  If you are interested in joining this Scotland wide network, contact Amanda Calvert on

The network is already taking forward plans for a boat building project, an art and photography competition and will be developing ideas as groups begin to work more closely together.

Networking and Sharing of Information

CWA has developed a comprehensive information support service for existing and aspiring groups, keeping communities in touch with what’s going on regionally and nationally. Four issues of our newsletter "Woodland Voices" are distributed per year with contributions from members, and highlighting new initiatives, relevant policy, funding information and forthcoming events.

The CWA provides opportunities for information exchange and networking between members, both at events and conferences and through the CWA Members e-group. A monthly ebulletin is issued keeping everyone up to date with training events, conferences, projects and the activities of other groups. In addition there is a quarterly ebulletin giving all the news about what CWA has been doing to support, represent, coordinate and promote community woodlands in Scotland.

We provide support on issues such as planning, obtaining land, setting up a committee, legal matters, biodiversity, fundraising, project management, access issues and insurance. The first point of contact is our Development Team contact details on the CWA staff page.

Training

The CWA recognises the vital importance to groups of gaining the skills required to get the best out of their woodlands. A survey of members’ training needs was carried out some time ago and a package of support has been established. The CWA provides some direct training, but also supports members in accessing skills taught by other organisations including other member groups.

The training curriculum includes:

• Forest Produce
• Silviculture and Woodland Skills
• Access and Recreation
• Management Planning
• Conservation and Local Biodiversity Action Plans
• Small Business Development
• Running a Committee
• Marketing and Publicity
• Funding and Accounting

In 2004 CWA were awarded a grant from the Scottish Executive to encourage member groups across Scotland to host Biodiversity Training Courses. Groups were able to earn up to £500 to carry out the organisation and administration of these events. Eight successful events took place during 2005/07.  We are currently seeking funding to develop this programme of training.  The new Scotland wide project will be known as the Knowledge Share Project.

Look out for up and coming training information from the CWA e-group, newsletter and website.

ELAV: Enhancing local activity and values - An International Community Forestry Project

The Community Woodlands Association has been one of 16 partners from 5 nations (Sweden, Norway, Finland & Iceland are the others) who were working on ELAV, a 3 year international project, funded by the EU Northern Periphery Program, designed to widen the scope of community involvement in forestry.  The project is now completed with the full report pending.  A follow on project is now underway to develop a Forest Park in the area.

The Scottish ELAV project area was located in South East Sutherland, which has a wide range of forest types and ownerships, and several active community woodland groups. A Scottish Project Officer has been employed from Jan 2006 to Dec 2007.

The project allowed the local community to lead the development of a strategic plan for local forestry, focusing on how new and existing forests can be established and managed to optimise their long-term contribution to the sustainable development of the local community.

The project also supported 8 international exchanges of up to 4 persons each to our international partners. Exchange participants had experience of and/or interest in one (or more) of four themes: community woodland development, tourism (based on forest land and resources), exploitation of non-timber forest products, and local processing of forest products (from craft scale to small sawmill).

You can download the reports from the exchanges here.

Sweden Dec 2005 - General overview and introduction to the project area (word Doc)

Sweden Sept 2006 - Non Timber Forest Products (word Doc)

Norway Dec 2006 -  Wood Fuel and Timber Processing (pdf 152kb)

Finland May 2007 - General overview, Forest Planning focus (pdf 425kb)

Norway June 2007 - Multiple use forestry (word doc)

Iceland Aug 2007 - Birchwood regeneration(pdf 403kb)

Finland Sept 2007 - Tourism (pdf 445kb)

Sweden Oct 2007 - Final Conference (word doc)

East Sutherland Final Report - Final Report (pdf 821K)

East Sutherland Woodland Inventory - Final Report (pdf 1MB)

The resulting community consultation has led to a further ELAV project exploring the potential for a Forest Park in the area.   More information on the outcomes of this project is available from the main ELAV website http://www.elavproject.com/scotland/scostart.php?sidnr=1

Forestry Commission/Community Partnerships, Research

In 2005 CWA, in partnership with the Forestry Commission, appointed a consultant to survey all existing FCS / Community partnerships.  The purpose of the research was to determine methods of best practice and how relationships could be improved.

Attached is the final report outlining the findings and giving recommendations for development of FCS/community partnerships.

Forestry Commission Scotland / Community Partnerships Report Download Here -