2mbBreadcrumbs
Great North Forest Land Management Initiative
The area and the issues
The Great North Forest is a Community Forest, established in 1990 with the aim of regenerating over 80 square miles of urban fringe countryside across South Tyne and Wear and North East Durham. The landscape is very diverse, with lowland areas, hills and plateaus. Around 70% of the area is either woodland or farmland, the majority of which is used for arable or mixed farming. The proximity to large urban centres is unique among the LMI project areas. Some 1.3 million people live within 10 kilometres of the forest boundary.
The issues facing land managers in the Great North Forest are common to urban fringe across the country and include:
- Lack of strong physical, cultural or economic connections between urban populations and surrounding rural areas;
- Social disadvantage and exclusion, affecting both rural and urban populations;
- Significant pressure from urban populations on surrounding rural areas, particularly through recreation and non-agricultural land uses such as built development, horse pasture and mineral extraction;
- Increasing numbers of land sales by older farmers or those with small farms, resulting in increasing fragmentation of holdings; and
- Substantial areas of degraded or derelict land.
Key conclusions
Conclusions resulting from work so far include suggestions of how to improve cross-sector co-operation on sustainable development issues and the need for greater flexibility within rural funding streams to facilitate such work.
Related publications:
The Great North Forest Land Management Initiative
For further information contact:
Bill Kirkup
Project Manager
North East Land Links
Tel: 0191 441 4402
Email: bill.kirkup@necf.org.uk
