Leading communities into their woods? The dynamics of forest-based community empowerment

摘要

The scene is a forest clearing beneath the Blackdown Hills in South Somerset. The group is sitting on rough wooden benches in the unseasonably hot autumn sun, around an unlit fire-pit and lightly shaded by the veteran oaks of Piddle Wood. We are not whittling wood, identifying fungi or hearing about the coppice work to be done this autumn. This time, because of the Woodland Edge conference, we are here to talk, to share ideas and learn from one another - a mixed assembly with a personal or professional interest in why people come into the woods. This article is really a collection of others' views expressed in the woods, and in the spirit of community development, I have tried to write them as they were said. The development of trends, summaries and conclusions are very much my own.