A framework for sharing experiences of community woodland groups

Community woodland groups are growing, and there are now over 650 groups in England, Scotland and Wales. The rise is the result of both social pressure and changes in policy. Groups are keen to learn from each other’s experiences, and policy stakeholders seek evidence of the effectiveness of past and current policy. While some experiences […]

Recreational Use of Forests and Wildlife Interactions

Legacy socio-economic research relating to: Governance Recreational Use of Forests and Wildlife Interactions  (PDF-224 KB) Access our current and recent socio-economic research.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Deer Management Grants in the East of England

Legacy socio-economic research relating to: Governance Assessing the Effectiveness of Deer Management Grants in the East of England (PDF-100 KB) Access our current and recent socio-economic research.

Managing public safety on harvesting sites

Everyone involved in forestry work has health and safety duties and responsibilities. This Practice Note provides guidance to help landowners, forest managers and forestry practitioners manage public safety on harvesting sites. Forest operations are high-risk activities, and the management issues involved in harvesting and hauling timber while maintaining public access to forests and woodlands can […]

Economic benefits of greenspace

A substantial body of literature, including government policies, acknowledges the important role of greenspace in sustainable development and the creation of attractive and economically vibrant communities. Greenspace refers to the natural environmental components (green and blue spaces) that lie within and between a region’s cities, towns and villages. This Research Report provides a critical review […]

Social media and forestry: A scoping report

Scoping report to help inform thinking about the value of social media to the Forestry Commission, how it can be more effectively utilised and what objectives and policy goals it can be used to help achieve and so provide a basis for identifying specific future research needs to support the Forestry Commission’s ongoing implementation of, […]

Public access to woodlands and forests

A review of existing literature on public access by Star Molteno, Jake Morris and Liz O’Brien. Related pages People, trees and woodlands Social forestry research

Greenspace design for health and well-being

The guidance set out in this Practice Guide represents a step forward in our thinking about the benefits of the outdoors for health and well-being. It aims to inspire everyone involved with outdoor spaces in healthcare settings to think how they could be used for therapeutic purposes. Focusing on outdoor spaces across the NHS estate, […]

Understanding private land-manager decision-making: A framework for forestry

This report synthesises substantial research relating to private land-management, including previous work by Forest Research. Drawing on both primary and secondary sources, it describes a Framework within which to understand the influences upon land-manager decision-making. By Norman Dandy. Related pages People, trees and woodlands Social forestry research

Common sense risk management of trees – landowner summary

This is one of three new publications that have been produced by the Forestry Commission for the National Tree Safety Group. The three documents provide guidance on trees and public safety in the UK for owners, managers and advisers. This landowner summary document provides a summary of the full guidance document – Common sense risk management […]

Human dimensions of adaptive forest management and climate change

Adaptive forest management is a systematic process for continually improving forest management, in conditions of complexity and uncertainty, by learning from the outcomes of experiments and operational practice. Adaptive management has often been proposed as a suitable approach for dealing with uncertainty and complexity in natural systems, particularly in relation to climate change.Some of the […]

A review of the Forest Education Initiative in Britain

This 2011 review looks at the history and development of the Forest Education Initiative, its governance structure, funding procedures and the activities and members of the cluster groups. By Liz O’Brien and Rebecca Lovell.