The Highland Community Energy Society donate a portion of our profits each year to a Community Benefit Fund. The community fund has been set up to support the communities near the hydro sites at Allt Dearg, Allt an Laghain, Achlain, Littleton, Feorline and Kinlochbervie (the final site is managed by Kinlochbervie Community Energy Society).
Examples of projects we have helped with funding:
- Strathpeffer Community Centre, near Allt Dearg
- The Glengarry Trust – Allt Laghain
- West Stormont Woodland Group – Littleton Bur
- West Glenmoriston Community Company - Allt Chaitchinn
- Kinlochbervie Community Company - Kinlochbervie
- Strachur Hub – Feorline Burn
Case Study: West Stormont Woodland Group
HCES has supported the West Stormont Woodland Group (WSWG, or Wizzywig for short!) with several years of funding. They are bringing the Taymount Wood and Five Mile Wood near Stanley, Perthshire, into community ownership through the Community Asset Transfer Scheme (CATS).
Their goals:
"Before WSWG’s involvement, Taymount Wood and Five Mile Wood ranked poorly enough against FLS performance indicators to be put on the disposals list for sale on the open market. WSWG saw the CATS process as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ensure these nature-rich “mainland islands” are preserved and enhanced for future generations. To us, their value is greater than the sum of their parts. Our goal is for them to be allowed to become 300 years old, allowed to reach their true ecological potential and ever increasing value as old growth woodland, preserved and enhanced as a biodiversity reservoir for repopulating flora and fauna into the wider landscape.
Through outreach, our West Stormont Connect initiative will link with other community groups to help bring the systemic change and innovation so urgently needed at landscape scale, a work already producing green shoots with the Stanley Biodiversity Village project amongst others."
HCES funding has contributed to the running of (and equipment for) events like woodland walks and picnics, botanical surveys, and bushcraft sessions. It has also helped the organisation to develop their website and their own communications.
