Community engagement

The Kinclaven Woodland Working Group. Credit WTML

Good practice for restoring Scotland’s rainforest

The Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest has always recognised that to be successful in rainforest restoration, we need to think big - both in space and in time. Tackling the two main threats to this internationally important habitat – the spread of invasive Rhododendron ponticum, and high numbers of deer preventing regeneration of the woodland – can only be done across a large area, requiring collaborative action across multiple landholdings, with a commitment lasting many years – at least a decade, ideally much longer.

Working in this way can only be effective if the communities that live and work within these projects are involved and empowered at the outset, experiencing social and economic benefit and therefore valuing and taking pride in being a part of it. Without this, projects will fail soon after the main funding phase comes to an end. This principle has become strongly established as the ASR’s first Landscape-scale Focus Projects have developed. ASR partners felt that, to ensure both current and future ASR Landscape-scale Focus Projects are exemplars for rainforest restoration, it would be useful to develop guidance in good community engagement.

This document is the result. It has been written to help those leading landscape-scale rainforest restoration projects engage well with communities so their projects can be as successful as possible. This isn’t a set of ‘standards’ – since there are many standards out there – it’s intended to be a helpful guide showing “what good looks like” in the context of Scotland’s rainforest, and how to achieve that. The guidance has been written using the knowledge and experience of the skilled and experienced practitioners who wrote this, combined with the practical experience of ASR partners already working on the ground, engaging with communities on landscape-scale restoration projects.

That said, the journey that many are making in Scotland towards a more empowering form of community engagement is a fast-moving and exciting one. The context we’re working in, combined with the learning from ASR Landscape-scale Focus Projects as they are delivered, may call for adapting this guidance before long. Therefore we will treat this as a living document to make sure it stays relevant for the long term – as long as a landscape-scale rainforest restoration project, perhaps.

So if you have any comments or suggestions to update or improve this document we would love to hear from you – please get in touch at info@savingscotlandsrainforest.org.uk

View or download the full document here: Community engagement: Good practice for restoring Scotland’s rainforest