Woodland maintenance to strengthen community

The Problem

The need to put roots down.... in every sense....

The Social Invention

A neighbourhood initiative dubbed ?People Planting? is offering children and community-based groups the means to develop their own areas of woodland, thus providing a practical but also symbolic way for communities to tend to an earth in crisis. Developed by the Green Light Trust in association with UK home improvement retailer B&Q, the People Planting scheme hands out toolkits to interested groups containing practical woodland management information as well as ideas for creative fundraising. Whilst physically cultivating the earth alleviates a sense of helplessness in the face of worldwide environmental horror stories, the subtext of the initiative is to instil community spirit and pride through maintaining woodlands and engaging in related activities. Thus, the basic tools for kick-starting woodland projects are accompanied by resources that promote storytelling and other community-inspiring events incorporating song, dance, and traditional crafts.

'The maintenance of woodland acts as a uniting medium for the community to flourish'

Although resource kits are not supplemented with financial support, groups can own as little as a single ?special? tree to qualify for the scheme, and if the idea lives up to its initial promise it could well win backing from the UK government and extend to other countries. People Planting is unique in that its specific intentions are person-focused, and the maintenance of woodland, although significant in its own right, acts as a uniting medium through which all types of community can flourish. Thus whilst people plant the seeds, it is their community that grows as a result. ?Our aim is to imbue the growing woodlands with community power and the environmental arts?, as a Green Light Trust representative puts it. The organisation is also keen to stress that ?community? in this context can mean a village, urban district or even a major housing development. In the wider scheme of things, the programme hopes to instil a sense of environmental and community responsibility in today?s children, in the hope that future generations, whether growing up in rural localities or urban tower blocks, will experience a genuine sense of belonging to and caring for their surrounding environment.

- For more information contact the Green Light Trust, Lawshall Green, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP29 4QJ (tel: 01284 828754; fax: 01284 827273; e-mail: info@greenlighttrust.org;
web: www.greenlighttrust.org).

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Summarised from an article, entitled ?People Planting?, in Positive News (Winter 2002/03 issue; subs ?15 p/a, see PositiveNews.org.uk or call 0845 458 4758). Information submitted by Michael Green.

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