Forest Plan / Introduction / Introducing the Cumbria Community Forest Plan
Introducing the Cumbria Community Forest Plan
About this Plan
This is the first Forest Plan for Cumbria Community Forest. It sets out the Vision and Goals for Cumbria Community Forest over the next 25 years (2025-2050). It grounds these long-term ambitions with an Action Plan for the next 5 years (2025-2030), detailing key steps to achieve the Vision and Goals over time. These strategic and tactical plans are informed by evidence gathered through primary and secondary research undertaken by Raise and England’s Community Forests.
Through long-term commitment to the areas they work in, England’s Community Forests empower communities to transform their local landscapes by creating and maintaining woodland of all sizes, in both rural and urban settings. The Community Forest Trust supports, enables and champions the work of England’s 15 Community Forests.
This Forest Plan has been developed by Raise with support from partners of Cumbria Community Forest, England’s Community Forests and the Community Forest Trust. It is a requirement of the Trees for Climate woodland creation programme funding awarded to England’s Community Forests by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
As shown in figure 1, this Forest Plan provides both:
A management framework to deliver place-based public benefits of Community Forestry, including:
- Benefits felt locally, such as increased access to nature, improved health and wellbeing, flood risk mitigation, and economic, cultural and educational opportunities.
- Benefits felt more widely, such as removing carbon from the atmosphere, helping nature to recover and improving water quality.
A bespoke approach to achieve transformative benefits for people with barriers to engaging with woodlands in Cumbria, including:
- Improving everyday access to woodlands for both urban and rural communities in Cumbria, given that both can be under-served in accessible, nature-rich greenspace.
- A focus on neurodivergent communities, with aims for Cumbria to become a national exemplar for neurodivergent engagement with woodlands
For more information on the potential benefits of Community Forestry, see research on the evidence for Tree & Woodland Benefits undertaken by Raise for this Forest Plan.
Figure 1: Functions of the Cumbria Community Forest Plan
Creating the Cumbria Community Forest Plan
Raise has led on creating the first Forest Plan for Cumbria Community Forest with an ethic of co-creation and collaboration wherever feasible. This Forest Plan records the process of research, conversation and innovation which has taken place throughout its development.
This planning process has included:
- Bespoke geospatial analysis [A] of the Cumbrian landscape, leading to opportunity mapping for woodland creation which balances potential environmental and socio-economic benefits;
- A programme of arts-led engagement and reflection with under-served communities, leading to the Community Manifesto and the Guiding Principles for CCF and testing the concept of the Raise Collective;
- Iterative consultation with key stakeholders including the Raise team, CCF Partnership, and other key Partners and supporters;
- Engagement with farmers and farm advisors to understand opportunities and barriers to establishing on-farm woodland and agroforestry, where trees are integrated with agriculture;
- Research investigating the wide-ranging evidence-base for tree and woodland benefits, and local and national policies which set the context for trees, woodland and people in Cumbria;
- Development of a monitoring and evaluation framework and funding strategy to support progress towards the Vision, Goals and Action Plan.
Throughout developing this Forest Plan, we have paid attention to neurodivergent experiences and intersectional barriers [B] to woodland access and activities, and opportunities for transformative benefits from woodland access and activities.
[A] Geospatial Analysis involves gathering analysing spatial and temporal (time-based) data to model different scenarios. Spatial data is mapped geographically, for example floodplain areas, areas of land allocated for new housing, or relative health or economic deprivation across the population of England. Temporal data can include information about an area or population which is updated annually, showing change over time.
[B] ‘Intersectionality’ is a framework which helps to understand and articulate how multiple forms of inequity faced by a person can compound to create obstacles and disadvantage. Factors affecting access to green space include low household income, age or disability, for example. If a person belongs to more than one under-served group they can experience intersectional barriers to accessing nature.
