Naturewise Community Forest Garden CIC Ffordd Doeth Natur Cymyned

Community Asset Transfer June 2017 (Sep 2017) Naturewise Community Forest Garden CIC Ffordd Doeth Natur Cymyned Gardd Coedwig Alpay Torgut [email protected] Telephone: 01239 621 039 Mobile: 07717 473 435 Website: www. naturewise.org.uk We wish to take possession through a community asset the transfer of freehold of two parcels of land at Parc Teifi Cardigan, Ceredigion: fields C4 and C6 (approx. 5.58 acres) at a minimal cost to us; I will set out the reasons as follows. We intend to use the financial resources generated through the Ecoshop, a wonderful community resource whose benefits are explained in detail later in this document. The financial resources would be used for the full benefit of the local community by retaining expenditure locally. We will use local businesses to make the structural changes to the site and in the purchasing of trees and fruit bushes. The plans we have made would make the project accessible and open to the community and this will take hard work, resources and dedication. This could be the largest community forest garden in Wales and an important resource as an example of sustainable living in action for Wales. We have the resources to create the project , which you will see in the financial plan, and we want to use our savings wisely on delivering the project rather than on purchasing the land . We have been invited by Mary Davies, Property Surveyor , Welsh Government to make an expression of interest for a Community Asset Transfer following our approach to acquire a permanent local site for a forest garden. Introduction Naturewise a brief history Naturewise’s work focuses on raising environmental awareness and enabling people to move towards living more sustainably. We have done this primarily through: running permaculture courses, creating and promoting forest gardens, and giving advice and consultations. Naturewise has created and managed three forest gardens; a community forest garden next to a large housing estate and youth club, a partnership with a large nursery school -forest garden in the grounds , both in London . The third a community forest garden on land owned by a private landlord, at St Dogmaels near Cardigan. Alpay came up with the name: Naturewise while he was travelling on the London underground and has been coordinating its evolution since 1990. He initiated and ran 20 permaculture courses under the umbrella of Naturewise. The courses were run from the forest garden in London. Many of the people attending those courses went on to establish growing projects for the community around Britain, making their own impact on sustainable living. The forest gardens have been created and maintained by volunteers at a very minimal cost. The latest forest garden in St Dogmaels was given £3,100 from local business and over a five year period volunteers including children from all the local schools planted 121 fruit trees and over 250 fruit bushes. Over ten years hundreds of children have engaged in the garden through visits, planting and maintenance and more recently forest schooling. We have found that children although from rural setting don’t know the names of trees and plants and don’t spend much time in nature. At the garden they were able to pick fruit directly and eat it immediately in a free roaming way over the half acre. Above: The land at the outset of Children were able to forage and collect plants planting, below after 8 years to create tea or a soup which they then cooked over a fire they had made. Cardigan junior school in particular have been active in visiting all through the year and pupils attended 10 forest school sessions and were able to tell stories that included the qualities of a particular tree and made poetry about what they experienced as well as sawing, fire making and path maintenance. (see letters from school) There are numerous ways to connect the curriculum in learning outdoors: in our example above we discussed use of story and poetry for developing tree identification and an understanding of the uses of the tree for either insects animals or human use. This activity uses science (specifies/ food chains, literacy- (poetry, story), history (use of wood locally clog making, bowls, spoons, charcoal). It also develops their understanding of global citizenship and sustainable development an important part of the school curriculum. They undertook foraging and cooking food on a fire: this connects to science (identification of plants/ how fires work ) and cooking and food preparation skills, using local food - sustainable development and global citizenship. There is a lot of research and discussion about how little time children spend outside and the effects of this on their real connection to nature. The Guardian quoted a survey which stated that children spend less time than a prisoner would be entitled to in this country. The Welsh Government have put in place educational policies to affect some change particularly with the foundation phase where children are encouraged to do most of their learning outdoors. In 2005 we undertook a comprehensive feasibility study to address a variety of objectives; our findings led us to conclude that there was a need for a project in the Cardigan area. There were many local groups and individuals who were interested in becoming involved. They wanted the educational aspects of the project as well as a place to meet up, socialise and access local, nutritious food. People particularly wanted to do something local that addressed the issue that the food on offer was: grown elsewhere, driven hundreds of miles, wrapped in plastics and sold through large super markets. Since then in the Cardigan town area: the allotments have been reinvigorated from a state of almost complete disuse by local people (including us and the Eco shop, which purchased the shed )and a number of groups access these (if intermittently) like Area 43- young people, Kinora- for people mental health challenges. Plus: a local market garden has been set up and sells its produce directly from the field and a Nature based health care established as a part of the West Wales Action for Mental Health. These examples show a changing picture locally where commitment to be involved and help develop sustainable food growing and make this area a more resilient place to live has evolved. The Ecoshop The Eco Shop was set up in Cardigan in 2009 following on from the success of the Forest Garden. Both projects aimed to take responsibility in changing things for the better in light of evidence to suggest dwindling natural resources and over- consumption. Funds raised from the Eco Shop went towards maintaining and developing the forest garden. Funds have also been used to plant trees and fruit bushes in all of the local schools. The shop is open 6 days a week and is staffed by 12 volunteers. It takes in a great volume of donated goods in order that others may make use of items which might otherwise go to landfill. We encourage local people to make creative use of recycled materials and support local businesses and individuals by showcasing or selling their products, thereby contributing to the local economy. Examples of what we sell are, stoves, refurbished tools, original wood crafts from local woodland, cushions made from locally recycled materials and decorated with designs by a young local artist, one-off up-cycled designer clothes and second hand clothes. The majority of our income comes from sales of donated goods and to a lesser degree book and tools which we buy to sell. We want to make sure our money is used in a good way to benefit people and the earth, not get used in any way that is destructive to the earth. The Eco shop mission statement states that: We believe that the move towards sustainability starts on a local level by: I ni yn credu bod y symydiad tuag at cynaliadwyedd yn dechrau yn lleol gan reducing fuel consumption for production and delivery of goods lleihau defnyddio tanwydd am cynhyrchiad a traddodiad nwyddau providing advice and information darparu cyngor a gwybodaeth creating local resources for recycling creu adnoddau lleol am ailgylchu providing an outlet for local crafts creu allfa am crefftau lleol setting up workshops to make use of recycled materials sefydlu gweithdai i ddefnyddio deunyddiau wedi'u involving local children in planting trees and understanding the importance of local food production cynnwys plant lleol mewn plannu coed a dealltwriaeth y pwysigrwydd o cynhyrchu bwyd lleol Volunteers and customers come to the Eco Shop from diverse backgrounds and for many reasons: To socialise to make a difference seek satisfaction through contributing to share information about other community initiatives which benefit the local economy to circulate materials to become involved in the community to get information about local events to minimize waste to bag a bargain to have fun to contribute to the local economy The eco shop has proved extremely successful, in creating a supportive place for volunteers all of which benefit greatly from having purpose, structure and a friendly community environment in which to flourish. Many of the skills learnt are transferable and enable volunteers to make other changes in their lives. Forest gardens Forest gardens are sustainable, edible landscapes designed to work like the natural structure of forests with their tree shrub and herb associations. By utilising the many levels that are apparent in a natural woodland system with o taller fruit and nut trees: like sweet chestnut, walnut, lime, o smaller trees like pear, plum, apple, hazel o fruit bushes like worcesterberry, choke berry, jostaberry, black and white currants, raspberries, o climbers like: grape, kiwi, hops, logan berry, tayberry, o ground cover like: strawberry, herbs, yarrow, fennel, mints, sage, tansy, rosemary, comfrey other plants that gather naturally like plantain, herb robert, campion, stitchwort, etc.

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