Sustainable Development Fund For National Parks Gets Independent Seal of Approval
An innovative fund helping individuals, community groups, and businesses in England's National Parks has been judged a success after its first 18 months.
An independent report published today, and completed by the Centre for European Protected Areas Research at the University of London, has monitored the English National Parks Sustainable Development Fund over its first year and a half of operation.
The Fund, which was the personal initiative of Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael, has also won the strong endorsement of the National Park Authorities. It aims to foster the principles of sustainability within the National Parks and supports a huge variety of projects, from wildlife to recreation and activity centres; from green transport to educational facilities; from developing alternative energy sources to sourcing produce locally; and from training in traditional countryside skills to developing ecological and affordable housing. Over three hundred such projects have been helped to date.
The Broads Authority's Sustainable Development Fund is supporting a £136,000, five year project that will rejuvenate the Broadland reed and sedge cutting industry, help it to become economically self-sustaining and competitive, protect the livelihoods of the cutters and their families, and safeguard the Broads landscape for future generations.
SDF grants totalling nearly £67,500 are being used to part fund the purchase of specialised cutting/processing equipment and storage facilities, the training of new recruits and the establishment of a 12 strong Reed and Sedge Cutters Association. This is the Fund's largest investment in the Broads and already the project is delivering considerable benefits for the local economy, the wildlife and the reed cutters themselves.
Alun Michael, Minister for Rural Affairs, said today:
"This report shows the great commitment of the communities of the National Parks to build upon their environmental and cultural heritage with innovative ideas. It is reinforcing Defra's key principle of sustainable development by enabling people to come up with ideas that benefit the environment, the community and the economy."
"The recipients have been tremendously resourceful in using a relatively small amount of money to lever in funds from elsewhere and make some tangible changes on the ground. In just eighteen months the Fund has secured match funding of over £13million."
"But there is plenty of room for improvement. I hope to see more projects linking urban and rural communities and encouraging the involvement of young people, disabled people, and groups who are traditionally less likely to benefit from the Parks".
Pam Warhurst, Chair of the Countryside Agency, commented:
"For me the most interesting of the fringe benefits associated with the scheme is the way it has broken down barriers and brought an entirely new constituency of local people into contact with the National Parks".
The report's authors at the Centre for European Protected Areas Research conclude that:
"Sustainability is an idea, not a recipe, and raises questions to which there are no universal or immediate answers. The Sustainable Development Fund has amply proved its worth, not just for the immediate benefits that projects have brought to their participants and local communities, but in identifying possibilities for delivering on the fundamentals of sustainability which may subsequently be developed elsewhere."
Defra will now work with the National Parks' Sustainable Development Officers and the Countryside Agency to consider the future of the Fund.
5/10/04
