The Wild Harvests Sector Support project (WHSS) is the latest element of Reforesting Scotland's work to encourage sustainable livelihoods from the forests and the wild products of Scotland. The first project activity was a pair of meetings, one in the north and one in the south of the country, which brought together people from the diverse range of businesses involved - harvesters; buyers; makers of fine foods and wines; craftspeople; course providers; landowners, land managers; and more. As with previous seminars, people made useful connections and expressed enthusiasm for more opportunities to meet and cooperate in the future.
As a result of these meetings, there is now a steering group to take forward plans for a Scottish Wild Harvests trade association, to offer a collective presence to aid access to funding, training and marketing opportunities, and to give the sector a voice in the face of policy developments and pressures such as concerns about overharvesting.
Reforesting Scotland is also helping to organise two seminars in 2009 - a regional event for the Scottish Borders, and a national seminar showcasing some major developments. We hope that one of these developments will be the launch of the Wild Harvests trade association.
The project builds on previous work done over the years by Reforesting Scotland and its partners. The Wild Harvests seminar in Beauly in 2006 was the most recent of a series of non-timber forest product (NTFP) seminars. Participants identified a number of factors that could help wild harvests businesses; including more communication between businesses; consultation and representation about wider developments; and raising market awareness of Scotland's wild products. In early 2007, Reforesting Scotland's NTFP Sector Research and Development project consulted businesses in more depth about ideas for a trade body, a woodland products labelling scheme, and internet-based business support.
Part of the aim of the WHSS project is to link businesses to current developments which are relevant to them, such as the Scottish Working Woods label which was launched in June 2007. This label distinguishes and guarantees woodland products made in Scotland, by businesses based in Scotland, using materials harvested from Scottish trees and woodlands. It has the potential to give a significant market advantage to businesses which are going to the (also significant) extra effort and expense of sourcing their raw materials from Scottish woods, instead of taking advantage of cheap materials from abroad. A lot of wild harvests businesses gather their materials from woodlands - but the light administrative footprint of the label means that businesses can only access it via a trade association - and as yet there is no trade association covering NTFPs. This project hopes to find a way of filling that gap.
There will also be the opportunity to inform businesses about the legalities and conservation implications of wild harvesting, through links with Reforesting Scotland's Sustainable Forest Harvest project. This is vital to ensure long-term sustainability - something which is important in terms of marketing, but also an important part of what motivates many of the people working in this sector, and of our reasons for being involved with it.
So far this project has resulted in two meetings for wild harvests businesses during November 2008 (click here to download a report - PDF document 381KB); liaison with wild harvests businesses to provide displays and tasters at the Woodland Bounty event; and plans for the Wild Harvests of Scotland events in April 2009.
More information can be found on the ForestHarvest website.
If you would like to be involved please email Emma Chapman () or phone the Reforesting Scotland office on 0131 220 2500 - Emma will be working two days a week, so on other days please leave a message and she will get back to you.
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