Aigas Community Forest

A productive, working forest providing measurable social, economic and environmental benefits for local residents and visitors alike

Sir John Lister-Kaye

I am delighted to have been invited to champion the cause of Aigas Community Forest.

This is an important initiative, both ecologically and for local people. I have lived and worked at Aigas for 35 years; over that time I have seen the surrounding landscape increasingly divorced from the lives of the people who live with it, enjoy it and value it. At Aigas our landscape is vital to many local people’s employment and lifestyle. It is an area of universally recognised high scenic value, which attracts many visitors to the glen.

As a neighbouring land owner and businessman actively engaged in environmental edcuation, I firmly believe that imaginative community ownership would permit creative management of the forest for the best interests of nature conservation, environmental education and local recreation, as well as continued production of some commercial timber and other carefully controlled activities. In my professional opinion as a conservationist, this shift in emphasis and freeing up of opportunity is badly needed.

I am also in no doubt that the local community possesses the skills and commitment to undertake the management of this forest. I fully support this endeavour and I hope you will too.

Sir John Lister-Kaye, D.Sc., D.Univ., FZS., OBE