UNESCO convention on safeguarding cultural heritage.
Volunteers within the Brechfa Forest and Llanllwni Mountain area are working with other communities in Wales and England to add two categories of cultural heritage to the safeguarding register. As part of this process we need to consult members of our community to confirm that they agree to the registration and ask for their views on two topics.
While it would be sufficient for us to host a meeting to discuss this, we feel that the opportunities and challenges facing our community in the next couple of years mean that we need to go a little further and document the level of support from both residents and visitors to the area for registration.
Ancient Forest Based Community.
For centuries residents of forest based communities in England and Wales worked together to manage their forest for mutual benefit, but also had to comply with Forest Laws. Academic experts recognise that this has resulted in ancient forest based communities having a very different cultural heritage to traditional agricultural based communities.
We are working with other ancient forest based communities across Wales and England to register the status of an ancient forest based community as cultural heritage which should be safeguarded. . We would like confirm with the community if they support this action. Additionally, we have to write an summary (max 200 words) on how that cultural heritage is still practised today and how it is shared with future generations. –
Building a strong sustainable local economy based on the attractiveness of the open access land.
Management of our forest was a major source of employment in the area for centuries, even after the Labour government privatised our forest in the 1930’s. There were still over 300 people employed in its management in the early 1980’s but, increases in mechanisation meant that this would be dramatically reduced within a few years. From the 1980’s our community has encouraged by Forestry Commission and Government policies to embrace business and employment opportunities based on recreational use of our forest.
From 2007 we were one of 6 Welsh communities supported during the first phase of the Cambrian Mountain Initiative to be exemplars of best practice of community led sustainable development linked to building a strong economy based on the attractiveness of Brechfa Forest and Llanllwni Mountain for recreation. We feel that its important to confirm with the community that they continue to support this vision for our community and to register this aspect of our heritage to help safeguard it.
Please share this form with your contacts.
We are putting requests out through various organisations asking residents who live in any of the settlements who encircle our forest and mountain as well as those who come to the area for recreation to complete this form. The form will both used in the process of applying to register to safeguard this aspect of our cultural heritage and will be retained so that we can demonstrate community support for protecting this element of our heritage if needed.
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