Community-owned and managed woodlands: A role for social enterprise

The Woodlands Social Enterprise Network is a new body to promote and support communities involved in woodland management. Mike Perry assesses the opportunity for an entrepreneurial approach to reconnecting people with their local woods.

People care passionately about woodlands and forests.  This was clearly demonstrated by the reaction to the government consultation on the future of the public forest estate. The government forestry and woodlands policy statement, published at the end of January, clearly identified the need to reconnect people and communities with their woodlands and woodland culture. It recognised that community involvement in woodland management, supported by social enterprise, is a key way to help achieve this goal.

In December a group of individuals and organisations with an interest in community-ownership and management of assets, woodlands and forestry and social enterprise met with the objective of forming a new network of organisations committed to creating opportunities for communities and social enterprises to own and manage woodlands in England and across the UK. This growing network, which has now met twice, includes the Plunkett Foundation (who provide the secretariat for the network), Hill Holt Wood, Forestry Commission, Locality, Co-operatives UK, the National Association for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (NAAONB) and Social Enterprise UK.

The Woodlands Social Enterprise Network feels there are growing opportunities for communities and social enterprises to own and manage woodlands in England and across the UK.

Opportunity 1: Communities wish to manage or own woodlands
Anecdotal evidence from a range of sources indicates that there are a growing number of communities wishing to get involved in woodland management and ownership. Some communities want to manage or own woodland so they can derive more benefits from them.  These benefits include greater public access, improving biodiversity, the creation of jobs, or a wide range of other potential benefits. Some are local communities near local authority woodlands who are exploring taking on woods that local authorities wish to transfer to them. Others are transition groups looking to access woodland for a wide range of environmental and social benefits.

Opportunity 2: Communities can develop the skills to manage woodlands
Communities have proven themselves as effective in owning and managing a whole range of assets. There has been a huge increase in community owned assets, particularly in rural areas, whether these are local shops and pubs, community centres, village halls or land for growing food. Of the limited number of communities who own and manage woodlands it has been proven that they also can be extremely effective. Hill Holt Wood in Lincolnshire for example is a woodland social enterprise which supports community involvement.

Opportunity 3: Community owned and managed woodlands can be financially viable
There is clear evidence that community-ownership of assets is a viable and successful approach. For example, of the 322 community-owned shops to have ever opened, only 13 have ever closed.  Each of these community enterprises came into existence in a community where a previous privately run business had failed. The community and volunteer effort that social enterprises can often muster allows a detailed involvement which can make the initial difference between profit and loss. There are challenges with managing small and isolated woodlands for any return.  There is also great interest in investing in community assets. Community shares are an increasingly popular way of raising capital. Community shares are being used by communities where they need to raise capital for purchasing woodland, as at Chapel Lawn or other related capital items, such as wood fuel boilers and woodchip as seen at Woolhope Woodheat and TreeStation.

For the last 12 months the National Association for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (NAAONB) has been working with local AONB Partnerships, woodland owners, contractors and local communities to support 8 woodland social enterprise pilots. This work has led to the creation of two new wood fuel co-operatives, developing a community share issue for the purchase of a woodland by a local community and working to support the transfer of a woodland from public ownership to community ownership.

Opportunity 4: Social enterprise can help support management of woodlands in public ownership
The general public feel passionately about the public forest estate.  While we believe there is a clear need for the public forest estate to remain in public ownership, we also believe that communities and social enterprises can play a role in managing elements of the public forest estate for community benefit. Local authorities also own 6% of England’s woodlands – and for them, woodland management is often low on their priorities. There is also realistic assessment of the liability that land ownership can bring, and also some opposition to outright transfer from local authority ownership in certain cases.

Opportunity 5: Social enterprises operate for wider public benefit
Social enterprise is a broad church and involves many different approaches and types of businesses. What we’re talking about here are those approaches which are embedded within their local communities and based around a productive approach to managing woodlands – whether in regards to woodland products, services or experiences. These types of community-owned and managed social enterprises have a clear need to operate for wider public benefit in order for their enterprises to be successful. This may be by having a structure where members of the local communities can become owner members. It may be by opening up greater access to the public and helping people feel able to use woodlands and benefit from them.

Opportunity 6: Social enterprise can help woodlands and forests become better managed with improved biodiversity
Enterprise is a broad church. Clearly a form of enterprise that only takes from woodland and never gives back or replaces can be highly detrimental to woodlands. Social enterprise is different however as its enterprise model is focused on doing well by doing good. This may be by utilising the wood grown in a sustainable way- woodland management creates products that can be sold to support the woods. It may also be by using the woodland asset for wider benefits such as green care or education and training. Viable enterprise and effective woodland management goes hand in hand. It is not a case of one or another.

Opportunity 7: Spreading the approach
Many people will have heard of Hill Holt Wood, a pioneering community-owned woodland social enterprise in Lincolnshire.  It is seen within the social enterprise movement as a leading example of what social enterprise can achieve. Anyone who has been to Hill Holt Wood will know that it is a special place.  Because of this some people think that it is a one off and could never be replicated elsewhere by other communities or social enterprises. However there is clear evidence from over 150 years of how socially progressive enterprises inspire others to replicate and adapt. These range from the consumer co-operative societies of 1844 onwards to the wide range of community-owned enterprises and other social enterprises in existence today. Hill Holt Wood is contacted by communities on a weekly basis looking for help to set up their own ways of developing social enterprises, based on applying what they know and what they have developed to the circumstances of individual communities.

The Woodlands Social Enterprise Network is committed to taking these opportunities and making them a reality.

• Mike Perry is head of communications at the Plunkett Foundation
• To find out more about the Woodland Social Enterprise Network please visit the Woodland and Forests discussion on the Fiery Spirits network http://fieryspirits.com/group/woodlands-and-forestry.