Two projects, in East Manchester and Liverpool, show how community forestry approaches can be used in different types of regeneration programmes.

Regeneration through Environmental Action (REACT)

Two of seven REACT projects are in the North West - working in East Manchester with the New Deal for Communities Urban Regeneration Company and in Merseyside with the Health Action Zone.


In the Rural White Paper (2000) the Government said it would:

"like to see the approach [community forestry] adopted more widely and will consider how it can be used to assist with the implementation of other regeneration, forestry and community based initiatives".

In response, the REACT programme was set up to demonstrate how community forestry principles can be integrated into the work of Area Based Initiatives such as Health Action Zones or Sport Action Zones.

East Manchester REACT

The Red Rose Forest team and Groundwork Manchester delivered the project as part of the New Deal for Communities Environment Programme. Running from April 2003 to March 2005, it involved:

  • integration of community forestry into the programme, the East Manchester Neighbourhood Plans implementation and the Medlock Valley Strategy;
  • use of community forestry approaches by community link officers in Clayton, Beswick and Openshaw;
  • research into the feasibility of environmental business in East Manchester;
  • promotion of the project and the use of community forestry approaches.      

REACT in Liverpool

This focused on the contribution that community woodlands and urban greenspace can make to health improvement in target groups at risk of coronary heart disease and obesity. The project sought to work with:

  • ethnic populations – certain groups within Liverpool are at a high risk from heart disease and may not, for cultural reasons, be able to get involved in certain types of exercise;
  • people with disabilities – a major issue being access to care and to information;
  • young people – levels of obesity in young people in Liverpool are high and rising.      

A project officer was employed by Central Liverpool Primary Care Trust.  Running from January 2003 to early 2006, the project:

  • created new innovative ways of engaging with "hard to reach" groups;
  • worked with people to help them overcome barriers to enjoying and using green space for recreation;
  • successfully engaged new partners and stakeholders;
  • consolidated the learning into case studies and good practice guides;
  • influenced strategic health and physical activity planning.