Quantock Futures Project
As part of the Quantock Landscape Partnership Scheme, we’ve started a conversation about the future of the hills. A wide-ranging and inclusive group of individuals and organisations are taking part in a couple of day workshops to sketch out issues, challenges, and opportunities, but we also need to hear from as many other people who love these hills as well. What do you think about what might lie ahead for this fabulous area? Read on to find out more about the Quantock Futures project, then please take part in the survey linked at the bottom of this page.
If you want more factual background information about the area before you respond, the document library (bottom right of the page) has lots of relevant reports and plans to download. The Landscape Conservation Action Plan, written for the LPS funding bid, is probably the most comprehensive single source and has a good index to help you find what you’re looking for.
The impacts of climate change are increasingly visible and will have a lasting effect on the Quantock Hills and the people and nature that live amongst them. This is set against the backdrop of changing land ownership patterns, uncertainty over support mechanisms for agriculture, and increasing social expectations about access and wild land. How can we conserve the best of the past as part of a vibrant and economically viable future? The Quantock Futures Project brings people together to help create a shared vision, identify and build on strengths, and create a future 'route map’ to set out how the area can adapt to and plan for future change.
By a 'route map' we mean a shared idea of where we’d like to end up in say 15 years’ time. There are big social, economic and climate challenges ahead, that will affect how the Quantock landscape looks, how people use the area for recreation and wellbeing, how farming works as a business, and in many other ways. We can all choose to adapt to change as it happens, or we can try to shape that change and work towards a better outcome for everyone. One thing is for sure, things staying the same is not an option. That shared idea of where we want to go and how we might get there is what we’re calling a 'route map'.
The route map is being shaped through this dialogue process that spans two workshops bringing together people from a wide range of interests. With your help, they are developing a shared vision and priorities. They want to know what others think and views are being gathered in two ways: in one-to-one conversations with farmers and landowners, and this interactive website to find out your views. Climate change is a cross-cutting theme and other suggestions for the future of the area have focused around five topics.
This work has been commissioned as part of the Quantock Landscape Partnership Scheme, led by the Quantock Hills AONB, with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.