Llais y Goedwig is a member of the Glastir Woodland Management stakeholder group. This page is for news and feedback on the development of the Glastir Woodland Management scheme which is due to be launched in January 2012.
Background
Glastir is the replacement for the Better Woodlands for Wales (BWW) scheme which is now closeed though payments will continue until the end of existing contracts. Glastir Woodland Management is conceptually different from BWW in that the driver for what you can be funded to do will come from Welsh Government priorities rather than the objectives of the landowner. It is based on procurement principles so the WG will buy environmental and public services from the landowner. There is a long list of services that the WG wishes to buy such as red squirrel habitat, streamside stability, species diversity etc. and for each a target map has been prepared to show the highest priority areas for each service. If you join the scheme then a management plan to deliver environmental services from your wood will be prepared by a woodland planner according to the WG shopping list. LlyG have been working with the Glastir Stakeholder group to try and ensure that Glastir will be accessible to community woodland groups and has the things we want to do on the shopping lists.
Social benefits and Glastir
At the early stages as part of the process of understanding what Glastir could and couldn’t deliver LlyG did a gap analysis of the funding for the social benefits from woodland management provided under BWW and required by FSC certification. This resulted in a paper submitted to the Glastir development team. It seems that there is little opportunity for Glastir to provide for many social elements of good woodland management but assurances were given that these would be revisited in the development of the next RDP (post 2013).
Involving local people in woodland management (submission to Glastir Woodlands stakeholder group)
Targetting permissive access
The CCW proposal is that national targetting for footpath payments under Glastir WM should be based on:
(1) permissive access in service of tourism which would link ‘local services’ to ‘specified strategic routes’ (e.g. long distance footpaths) and within 2 km of the new coastal path and
(2) provision of access to deprived communities with a presumption that they are located in urban Communities First and Single Regeneration areas.
This results in a target map which leaves large areas of Wales without support for footpath works. LlyG responded by pointing out that this should be augmented to
a) recognise that 20% of deprived communities are in rural areas,
b) serve the needs of local people and
c) recognise that woodlands are destinations in their own right.
The response is that local needs cannot be represented in national scale mapping and local targetting will be based on maps prepared by the Local Access Forums.
We have a meeting with WG Rural Affairs dept on the 21st October to discuss the adequacy of these provisions. To be able to do this effectively please can you let us know
(a) whether you are intending to do works on your access routes in the near future and would need Glastir funding
(b) you are able to contact and work with your Local Access Forum
and anything else you would like to contribute to this debate.
If you want to see the details:
Access – Targeting v6 – final March 2011
Troserch Woods comprise more than 30 ha of community-owned woodland on either side of the unspoiled Morlais river valley north of Llangennech. We are committed to public access, wildlife conservation and regeneration of ancient broadleaved woodland. There is a right of way through the wood but access to the river banks and surrounding areas depends on a network of permissive paths, constantly threatened by windblow and erosion of river banks. To fulfil our public access commitments and safety requirements we need funding for this work. We would also like to join up rights of way connecting the woodland to the village of Llangennech and roadlinks from Llanelli and Swansea. In the longer term, some of us have dreamed of a long-range path up the Morlais valley Loughor to Gwendraeith, linking old coal to coal: Morlais to Tumble collieries up a valley corridor that is both beautiful and rich in history. Besides footpaths, we have provision for a picnic and camping site. We are lucky to have volunteer help from Keep Wales Tidy and the Princes Trust as well as our own members (currently numbering about 200), but this does not allow for the cost of materials and machinery for heavier work. Over the past few years, we have experienced increasing damage from unseasonal winds and sudden downpours.
We would of course be interested in discussing local access provision more generally and taking part in any scheme that did not make disproportionate demands on unpaid officers and committee members.