Following on from previous Advisory Notes, the next step is to pull all the information you have
gathered together and define objectives for your community woodland. This is a key step in putting
together your woodland management plan. The purpose of this Advisory Note is to demystify this
process and give some practical examples of how some community woodland groups have arrived at
objectives for their woodland.
This Advisory Note has been written to help you better understand the Wellbeing of Future
Generations Act (WFGA) goals and the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources
(SMNR) principles. It suggests ways that you can incorporate them into a management
plan which you can use to deliver your group’s activities, and when applying for funding. It
draws on the experience of community woodland groups in Wales identified in the report
Scoping the delivery of Welsh Government policy goals by Community Woodland Groups, which
is available from Llais y Goedwig.
Knowledge of your woodland is a prerequisite for successful management but when you start out, unless you are very fortunate, you are likely to have significant information gaps. Even if you do have a lot of prior knowledge, it is best to organise it in a systematic manner. This Advisory Note is intended to lay out the types of information you will need to prepare your woodland management plan (see Advisory Note 7). The list of information you need for management planning is long, but don’t be put off. Under the adaptive management principle, you can start managing your woodland straightaway using the best information available; you can then make provision for further surveys in your management plan and revise your plan as needed. This Advisory Note will point you towards pre‐existing data on your woodland and provide some simple ideas for carrying out your own woodland surveys. This Advisory Note can be used in conjunction with the Woodland Health Survey produced by Llais y Goedwig in conjunction with Plantlife.
This Advisory Note is about understanding the needs of your community so that you can assess how your
woodland group can respond to them. It gives an overview of experience and suggestions from community woodland groups and highlights different elements that new and established groups should consider. Every group and every setting is different but there is much that we can learn from each other.
This Advisory Note has been written to help you consider which legal structure would be appropriate for your new community woodland group. It draws on the experience of community woodland groups across Wales who have already tackled this question who now operate under a wide variety of forms. This note is intended as a guide and highlights key factors to consider.
Short-term focus on actions and activities to make progress towards delivery of the long-term ambitions
of “Woodlands for Wales”.
The focus of this research paper is the development of community forestry over the last 20 years in Great Britain.
One of a suite of Welsh Government policy positions providing background and evidence for the outcome of Woodlands for Wales.
A Woodland Trust report reviewing community ownership and management of woodland in the UK, with
particular emphasis on business and finance models that should be considered to enable an increase
in community woodland in future (applicable to both existing woods and creation of new woods).
A study assessing the impact of Community Woodland Initiatives across the UK.
.
