A new £1.6million project in the Inner Forth has been granted just over £1 million by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to boost the area’s climate resilience through the promotion and enhancement of local heritage.
Climate FORTH (Furthering Our Resilience Through Heritage) is the latest project from Inner Forth Futures (IFF), a landscape-scale partnership which has been operating across the coastal areas of Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Falkirk, and Fife since 2012.
The project aims to:
- Promote the value of Inner Forth’s natural and built heritage, and use it to inspire positive action towards societal and climactic change.
- Contribute towards Scotland’s net zero climate targets.
- Increase climate resilience for people and places within the Inner Forth through heritage, supporting local economy, healthy lifestyles, sustainable choices, and a just transition to a low carbon future.
- Support most at-risk communities and those facing environmental deprivation and inequality through increasing the resilience of the local area’s natural and built heritage to climate change and other changes.
Work will begin shortly on several new initiatives, including green skills training for young people and community groups, enhancement of sustainable travel options around the local area, and capital works at four locations across the project area. These initiatives will improve the climate resilience of greenspaces at Glendevon Drive in Stirling and Rannoch Park in Falkirk, as well as an important community building, Cochrane Hall in Alva, Clackmannanshire, and the Gardener’s cottage ruin at Valleyfield Estate in Fife.
Climate FORTH Project Manager, Kate Fuller, said, “We’re delighted to have been awarded this Heritage Fund support that will allow us to show how the diverse natural and cultural assets of the Inner Forth can be adapted to tackle the threats of climate change. We’ve seen through our previous work just how special this part of Scotland is. Thanks to National Lottery players, Climate FORTH will enable us to re-invigorate our work with the amazing communities that live here and support them to lead by example as Scotland moves towards achieving net-zero.”
Emilie Wadsworth, Operations Director for the Green Action Trust and IFF Board Member, said, “As a long standing project partner, we at the Green Action Trust are delighted with this news. Inner Forth projects have been major forces over the years to deliver on the Central Scotland Green Network vision to transform the environmental well-being of central Scotland, with people and nature at its heart. We wish Climate Forth every success and look forward to continuing our fruitful partnership.”
This project will be running from August 2023 – July 2026.
Inner Forth Futures is a partnership between RSPB Scotland, Clackmannanshire Council, Falkirk Council, Fife Council, Green Action Trust, Historic Environment Scotland, NatureScot, Stirling Council and Sustrans. Climate FORTH is partly funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, with additional funding from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund, the Crown Estate, IFF members and the Scottish Government through Sustrans Scotland’s Network Engagement Programme.
For more information, visit innerforthlandscape.co.uk.
