The Skyline project seeks to reconnect communities in the South Wales Valleys with the landscape that surrounds the town.
Since the feasibility report was published we have been working with Welcome to Our Woods to deliver this vision supported by a grant from the Welsh Government’s Foundational Economy Challenge Fund.
Starting in April 2021 and working in close partnership with Welsh Government and NRW we are working to deliver three innovative projects that could have a benefit for communities across Wales.
The first project is to co-design the future of the Forest. We call it the Future Forest Vision – a blueprint for the 550 Ha of the public forest that surrounds Treherbert. This forest plan is being co-produced by a group of 30 local residents working in partnership with NRW – and expertly facilitated by Co-production Network for Wales.
A draft Future Forest Vision will be ready for sharing with the wider community and stakeholders in the first quarter of 2022. This is a unique project where the community’s values and visions can be captured into a long-term forest management plan. Ensuring that the forest can meet local needs as well as being managed to the highest standards for the people of Wales.
The second project is working towards establishing a community owned social enterprise that can help deliver some of the forest management needed to deliver the Future Forest Vision. We are working towards starting work in April 2022 and the enterprise will be able to employ forestry workers and provide training and apprenticeships for young people. This will be an important step in creating an economic link between the forest and the community.
And lastly, we are working to find a way to use the community delivery of social value to allow the transfer of timber or land assets to the community. By social value we mean the non-financial value that communities can deliver through environmental improvements, carbon capture, job creation, volunteering, to name just a few from a very long list of social values. We are working with the already established TOMs social value framework to see how it can be adapted for community asset transfer. Early days but potentially an important development for community asset transfer.
For more information on any of these developments please contact us
