Forest Plan / Delivery Strategy / Funding Strategy
Funding Strategy
Currently
Cumbria Community Forest (CCF) has been made possible, so far, through Defra’s initial Trees for Climate programme (2021-25) drawing from the Government’s Nature for Climate Fund. Trees for Climate has supplied Raise with combination of funding for both capital costs, such as the purchase of saplings and tree protection materials, and revenue costs, such as payment of staff salaries.
This combination of revenue and capital funding has been critical to enable Raise to build an expert staff team who can design and operate an effective grant scheme, provide expert advice and source appropriate saplings and materials, delivering woodland creation on complex sites where other grant funding schemes may not be suitable.
To date, CCF has also been funded by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, has drawn upon other sources of tree funding including from the Woodland Trust and Forestry Commission and has received in-kind support through corporate partners.
Woodland creation is delivered by other woodland creation partners within the CCF boundary, contributing to an overall increase in woodland and tree canopy cover. This woodland creation is funded through government grants such as the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO), Woodland Creation Planning Grant (WCPG) and Countryside Stewardship (CS).
Over time, all longer-established Community Forests in England have developed multiple income streams both to ensure their resilience and to enable them to increase their social, environmental and economic impact. Raise: CCF recognises that its sustainability relies upon diversifying its funding, and securing additional funding necessary to deliver the full breadth of this plan, beyond what is and can be funded by Trees for Climate funding.
2025-2030
England’s Community Forests (ECF) are developing a proposal with Defra to fund a further 3- to 5-year programme of woodland establishment, the details of which will be confirmed by April 2025. For Cumbria Community Forest, this is anticipated to fund our woodland creation programme for up to 5 years, including a remit to fund the improvement of existing woodland assets. ECF will continue to work to secure critical government funding into the future.
In recognition of continued pressures on government funding, ECF are exploring routes to securing complementary funding for Community Forests through the next 5 years. This approach includes building the fundraising resources and developing the green finance proposition for ECF as a national network. Green finance is private investment which supports positive environmental outcomes, such as nature restoration and net zero carbon emissions. In Cumbria, local authorities and other organisations are exploring the use of the Cumbria Nature ‘Special Purpose Vehicle’ as a route to green finance funding.
Raise will engage nationally via the ECF network and locally with our key partners, to explore all complementary funding options alongside government grant support.
The Raise Collective will act as an engine for creating viable partnerships for community engagement projects, responding to woodland creation sites and this Forest Plan. We anticipate that the Raise Collective approach will connect Cumbria Community Forest with diverse funders specialising in arts, heritage, education and research interests.
Across 2025-2030 Raise will also pilot initiatives, responding to this Forest Plan, to test the feasibility of corporate partnerships, philanthropic trusts and foundations, additional government funding, individual donation and the delivery of commercial services.
Longer term
We expect that the longer-term sustainable growth and management of Cumbria Community Forest will rely substantially upon generating income through green finance.
This could include approaches such as:
- Acquiring land and delivering carbon and biodiversity improvements on this land
- Acting as an agent to landowners we fund, to realise the sale of credits on their land
- Providing services to key strategic partners, such as local authorities
We will work with key partners and be informed by our pilot projects to build a portfolio of income with a view to ensuring the resilience of Cumbria Community Forest and maintaining the versatility of our approach. In the long term, we anticipate our income will include both earned and funded streams.
Cumbria Community Forest’s funding model will need to respond to external changes but will be guided first and foremost by the needs of our local communities, our landscape and our key partners.
