Have a look at our woodland social enterprise survey for England!
Shared Assets has been commissioned by Forest Research, the social research arm of the Forestry Commission, to carry out a brief survey into levels of community management of local authority owned woodlands. We’re really excited, both by the chance to work with such an interesting organisation, and because we are interested in the findings of the survey!
There isn’t much consolidated information at the moment about the extent of community and social enterprise management of woodlands owned by local councils, particularly in England. We are really keen to find out what sort of models are being used, and what some of the barriers and blockages might be to increased community involvement in woodland management.
As local authorities are reviewing their green space assets in the light of budget cuts, it might be that social enterprise and community involvement could offer some innovative solutions to management. Or might the risks and drawbacks outweigh the potential benefits? We will be really interested to see how local authority officers are dealing with these issues.
If you are a local authority officer with responsibility for woodlands, please take a look at our survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/localauthoritywoodlands. If you know of an officer who should be filling in our survey, then do please send them the link!