The Croft Woodlands Project
The Croft Woodlands Project offers free advice and support to crofters, common grazings and the wider crofting community to create new, mixed woodland and shelterbelts or improve the management of existing native woodland. Support is also available to smallholders in the Crofting Counties. Funding is available for small scale-tree planting and hedges. The Project can also help with the costs of preparing and submitting an application to the Forestry Grant Scheme.
The Croft Woodlands Project is a partnership between Scottish Crofting Federation, the Woodland Trust Scotland, Point and Sandwick Trust, Forestry Commission Scotland and, Coigach & Assynt Living Landscapes, Shetland Amenity Trust, Orkney Woodland Project, Argyll Small Woods Cooperative and the Highland Small Communities Housing Trust. It will run until mid 2020.
For further details download the Croft Woodland Project leaflet here, or contact your local adviser.
Foundation for Common Land – 2015/16
The project was piloted from January 2015 – May 2016, funded by grant aid from The Prince’s Countryside Fund to roll out a project similar to the Foundation for Common Land Hill Farming Training Scheme that ran in England between 2012 and 2014. In Scotland,...
Hedgerow Jelly – a study in Biodiversity and Responsible Foraging
The Woodland Trust Scotland, in partnership with Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Crofting Federation, is offering schools in Highland, Moray and Argyll & Bute the opportunity to apply for a Hedgerow Jelly pack.
The pack contains:
- a pack of young hedgerow plants from six fruiting species for your school grounds;
- an information sheet with planting and care instructions, introducing the hedge as a source of biodiversity and safe, responsible foraging;
- a colourful hedgerow poster, including the recipe for Hedgerow Jelly;
- links to online resources to highlight the range of learning opportunities of the hedge.
This is a long-term project, starting with planting a new hedge, caring for it (with minimum input) and watching it mature over the years, to provide a haven for wildlife and, in a few years, to yield a harvest of fruit for a special jelly.
For further information contact eleanorgarty@woodlandtrust.org.uk
To read a PDF about the project. Please click here …
To see a poster about the project Please click here …
Hungry for Rights
Hungry for Rights aims to educate and raise awareness of alternative food systems, offering extensive training and tutoring to promote short supply chains in crofting areas of Western Scotland.
Starting in 2013 the new 3 year EU-funded project, will emphasise that the development of short supply chains is an issue of concern for all citizens. A change from industrial forms of food production to shorter supply chains and more local food will require not only producers to change their production but also consumers and local authorities to change their habits and policies.
Consumers are often a driving force behind the local development of short food supply chains. Local authorities can play a role in the promotion of local food through public procurement.
Therefore, the project brings together representatives of these different groups. The inclusive approach will guarantee a thorough diagnosis of challenges and bottlenecks, help to identify specific needs for skills development and capacity building and enable work on a shared agenda on local food policy.
The lead partner is ACRA (Cooperazione Rurale in Africa e America Latina), a non-governmental, non-profit, organisation, recognised by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Union. Other project partners include Friends of the Earth Cyprus, Urgenci- the international network for Community Supported Agriculture in France, the Baltic Environmental Forum – Legambiente and People’s Expo in Italy.
Project workshops
Workshops will be organised with three thematic areas: food policy, alternative food systems and the future of crofting. On food policy, the first workshop was a public consultation on Becoming a Good Food Nation, held in Inverness, 24 September 2014. This was co-organised with Nourish Scotland. For 2015 workshops on different ways of organising local produce will be organised, such as box schemes and food hubs. Hungry for Rights will co-organise the Young Crofters gathering in Assynt.
Project outputs
A good introduction to the project is a video (please click here) made during the international exchange visit in France November last year in which participants from each country give their perspective on alternatives to the current food system or about community-based food systems in their country.
A series of Best Practices in community-based food systems from the project partner countries, with case studies from Cyprus, Italy, France, Lithuania, Scotland and Senegal, can be downloaded here.
Project website:
www.hungryforrights.org
