Many thanks again to Paul Sizeland at Lothians & Fife Green Network Partnership for sending us this excellent round-up of useful grant sources for environmental / biodiversity related activities. Some of these opportunities have deadlines very soon, good luck with your applications.
Fife could see an extra 200,000 trees (100 hectares) planted in the kingdom each year as a result of a new woodland strategy published today.
The Fife Forestry & Woodland Strategy sets out a five year vision to maximise the wide range of benefits from woodlands and forests.
It will assist with the delivery of Fife Council's Local Development Plan due in 2014, helping to improve cycle networks, create green networks, promote new planting and enhance woodland recreation.
Green community projects in Central Scotland have received an early Christmas present this year as they have been awarded over £60,000 funding from the CSGN Community Projects Fund to improve their local greenspace.
Supported by Forestry Commission Scotland, the CSGN Community Projects Fund provides one-off grants of up to £3,000 to support small-scale projects at a grass-roots level to enhance the quality of their environment.
A short animation on Water Sensitive Urban Design, commissioned by the Landscape Institute and CIRIA, has won the communications category of the 2013 Sustainable Water Industry Group (SWIG) awards. The animation explains the concept of Water Sensitive Design (WSUD) and argues the case for designing with water when planning any new development. Focusing on the personal as well as professional approach to managing and designing with water the animation has been viewed more than 6,000 times since it was released on 26 July 2013.
In November 2013, the Landscape Institute issued a Position Statement looking at the links between landscape and good health and well-being. The Position Statement aims to give professionals a better understanding of the contemporary role landscape plays in the creation of healthy places.
Over the past year we have profiled nine projects and initiatives taking place throughout the CSGN area and completed an additional ten green business case studies. These have been well received with over 2000 individual downloads from our website.
As we approach the end of 2013, we thought we’d take a few moments to find out what’s been happening to some of the projects and initiatives since their respective case studies were completed.
The consultation on Scotland’s Rural Development Programme (SRDP) is now underway. The document sets out the Scottish Government’s final proposals on how it expects to use the European and domestic funds accessed through the SRDP, and how this will be aligned with other EU funds. This includes an outline of the schemes it proposes to run and an indication of the budget allocations for various priorities. The closing date for responses is 28 February 2014 and we would encourage all CSGN partners and delivery bodies/agents to put in a submission, especially in respect of sections 9, 10 and 14.