Woodland Crofts
Woodland crofts are an opportunity for communities and individuals to build lives and livelihoods based on a woodland resource. Find out more about woodland crofting.
Opportunities in crofting
Crofting has been based traditionally on agriculture, often supplemented by other sources of income. The Crofting Reform Act 2007 however introduced some significant changes. These included the ability for new crofts to be created, and also for crofts to be put to a 'purposeful use' other than cultivation.
As a result it is now possible to create crofts from existing woodlands, manage them as woodland and run woodland-related businesses from them.
The Scottish Crofting Federation, the Community Woodlands Association and the Highlands Small Communities Housing Trust have joined forces in a push to promote and develop woodland crofts.
The Woodland Croft Partnership has a dedicated website with all you need to know about woodland crofts. They also maintain a register of those interested in taking on a woodland croft.
Woodland crofting is a model that can provide answers to many of today’s pressing issues: woodland expansion, sustainable forest management, food & fuel production, wider rural development, and affordable housing, and all through a low-carbon approach.Woodland Croft Partnership
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