The feasibility study is being run by The Green Valleys Community Interest Company (TGV CIC) with funding from the Friends Provident Foundation. TGV CIC is a local social enterprise with experience of community woodland and energy projects.
The feasibility study is being run by The Green Valleys Community Interest Company (TGV CIC) with funding from the Friends Provident Foundation. TGV CIC is a local social enterprise with experience of community woodland and energy projects.
The most important work will be working with communities to explore what it might mean and to understand the risks and opportunities. The feasibility project will be seeking to answer some of the following questions:
This will very much depend on the outcome of the feasibility study. Potentially a community may be able to put the plans into practice if we can demonstrate that social and economic benefits of community land management outweigh the risks – and that crucially – that there is widespread support for the idea across the community. We will also need to demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the current landowners and managers, that community management can bring benefits to everyone.
What might a community choose to do with the land if it could plan not for the three years of a Lottery grant but for three generations? Create jobs from forestry? Support small-holdings or food projects? Improve public access? Support wildlife? Or a combination of ideas and more besides.