Skyline

Project Skyline is seeking to give local people the means to shape their own environment? Not the current piecemeal approach, a small patch of woodland for a few years, but hundreds of hectares for hundreds of years – to the “skyline”. 

Giving communities the chance to see their values and visions for the future reflected in the way land is managed. 

What might a community choose to do with the land if they 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.

The initial feasibility work for Project Skyline was completed in 2019 with funding from the Friends Provident Foundation. The feasibility project was seeking to answer some of the following questions: What is the best way to govern a community land project? Are there sustainable business models that will mean that the community is not reliant on continual grant income? What is the environmental impact of any change in land use? What are the legal implications of the transfer of management responsibility?  You can read the full Skyline Feasibility Report.

Following on from this report two further projects have been undertaken: Rhondda Skyline and Valleys Skyline.

Rhondda Skyline, funded by the Welsh Government’s Foundational Economy Challenge Fund, started in 2020 and was designed to establish a pilot Skyline project in the Upper Rhondda.  This project will complete in spring 2022 and has resulted in the co-production of a long-term forest plan, we call is a Future Forest Vision, by the community and NRW.  We are also establishing a community forest enterprise to help deliver on the co-designed vision. Valleys Skyline, is funded through the Welsh Government Rural Communities – Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government and runs from late 2021 to spring 2023. This project will give 4 post-industrial communities, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Treherbert, Caerau, and Ynysowen, improved access and control over aspects of immediate landscape. Re-connecting communities to public land so that they can manage the land for environmental, health, social, and economic benefits. Each community has chosen a different priority and these include environmental improvements, learning spaces, improved all ability access, and growing spaces.  In each community we will be supporting community stewardship and enhancement of the natural environment.

https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rural-development-2014-2020_en