National Parks fund judged a success

An innovative fund helping individuals, community groups, and businesses in England's National Parks has been judged a success after its first 18 months.

An independent report published today, and completed by the Centre for European Protected Areas Research at the University of London, has monitored the English National Parks Sustainable Development Fund over its first year and a half of operation.

The Fund, which was the personal initiative of Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael, has also won the strong endorsement of the National Park Authorities.

On qualifying the success of the Fund, the report's authors at the Centre for European Protected Areas Research conclude that: "Sustainability is an idea, not a recipe, and raises questions to which there are no universal or immediate answers. [The Sustainable Development Fund] has amply proved its worth, not just for the immediate benefits that projects have brought to their participants and local communities, but in identifying possibilities for delivering on the fundamentals of sustainability which may subsequently be developed elsewhere."

Mr Michael said: "This report shows the great commitment of the communities of the National Parks to building upon their environmental and cultural heritage with innovative ideas. It is reinforcing Defra's (Department of Environmental Food and Rural Affairs) key principle of sustainable development by enabling people to come up with ideas that benefit the environment, the community and the economy.

"The recipients have been tremendously resourceful in using a relatively small amount of money to lever in funds from elsewhere and make some tangible changes on the ground. In just eighteen months the Fund has secured match funding of over £13 million.”

Pam Warhurst, Deputy Chair of the Countryside Agency, added: "For me the most interesting of the fringe benefits associated with the scheme is the way it has broken down barriers and brought an entirely new constituency of local people into contact with the National Parks.”

Defra will now work with the National Parks' Sustainable Development Officers' and the Countryside Agency to consider how 20 detailed recommendations about the future of the Fund should be taken forward.

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