Forestry Commission

Forests and woods can contribute so much to the nation. The Forestry Commission delivers practical programmes to make sure that, as communities and individuals, that Britain can get the most from them.

The Forestry Commission is constantly looking for ways to share knowledge, plan activities and develop new initiatives to provide benefits for the economy and for health and wellbeing.

The Forestry Commission works with a whole range of partners from private sector landowners to sports clubs, local communities to national businesses, on a whole host of recreation, regeneration and educational schemes. Responsibilities span research, commercial timber production, sustainability programmes and policy, as well as learning and leisure.

The goal is always to ensure that, at a practical level, Britain can use its forests to contribute positively to as many of the nation's needs as we can while sustaining this great resource for the future.

Marcus Sangster from the Forestry Commission says 'For some time I have been trying to garner interest in developing a methodological repertoire that will allow the environmental sector to use existing datasets to address current questions - can we be cleverer in the way that we exploit past research rather than commission new research every time we identify a research question?

If Living with Environmental Change can help with this then I will see it as a great success. What is needed is a co-ordinated approach across organisations and a repertoire of approaches, combined with training and awareness-raising, rather than the current one-approach-suits-all mindset. In the longer term we should aim for electronic storage and access to all public-funded environmental research.'