Climate Gathering and Fund Launch
By Amy Kenn, communications intern
Last Thursday, FEL Scotland hosted a Climate Gathering for COP29 at the beautiful venue of Venachar Lochside for an engaging and inspiring day of talks, workshops and discussion tables. Bringing together communities, climate leaders and change makers, we were joined by climate speakers with an opportunity to network over lunch, sharing and exploring knowledge and ideas in line with themes of climate action.
The morning began with teas, coffees and pastries whilst everyone arrived at the venue and got settled in, ready for a day of engaging climate action discussions and activities.
David Newitt from Scotland’s International Environment Centre (SIEC), based at Stirling University, opened as our first speaker, introducing the organisation and setting out their goals and priorities. At SIEC, they aim to create an innovation community in the Forth Valley Region and work towards building a net zero regional economy.
Stephi from our Climate Action Hub at FEL Scotland followed with an overview of FEL Scotland and the growing work happening within the Climate Action Hub, highlighting the strong focus and importance of building on community action and delivering community climate action projects.
The exciting news of the launch of the third round of climate action funds revealed three brilliant opportunities for applying for funding. The return of the ‘First Steps and Next Steps’ grant and two innovative new programmes, the ‘Women’s Climate Leadership Training Fund’ and the ‘Climate Leadership Programme’. If you’d like to find out more about these opportunities for project funding, head over to the Climate Action Hub section of our website.
Josh Adeyemi, Co-Founder of Black Scottish Adventurers (BSA), joined us for an inspiring talk, sharing his journey of creating a thriving community of adventurers across Scotland. Josh’s love for the outdoors began in 2012 when he moved from Nigeria to Scotland as he was pleasantly surprised to learn of the Land Reform Act, granting public access to Scotland’s land and countryside countryside—unlike laws in Nigeria. Inspired to explore and educate others about these rights, Josh also aimed to address the lack of representation in Scotland’s outdoors. Starting with just a group of 20 for their first adventure in 2020, BSA’s adventures quickly grew in size and impact, fostering a vibrant, inclusive community. Getting people into the outdoors and into nature, Josh found that this was the best way to educate others on daily actions and changes they could make towards climate action and by appreciating the beauty of nature, it was more encouraging for people to want to actively make these changes. The importance of bringing it down to a community level and making it comprehensive for each person is key to getting people involved. Josh and his team at BSA are all about sharing the beauty that Scotland has to offer with everyone and creating a fun and inclusive space for everyone to learn, explore and build connections and community.
A delicious vegetarian lunch catered by Venachar Lochside was brought out afterwards giving everyone a chance to discuss and reflect on the talks given by our inspiring speakers.
After lunch was the chance to get involved in the wonderful workshops on offer where attendees could get stuck into some practical and hands-on learning from Herbal Homestead and Green Aspirations!
Lauren Lochrie from Herbal Homestead hosted a herbal tea-making workshop where participants had the opportunity to create personalised blends tailored to address common ailments. Attendees explored the incredible benefits and properties of natural herbal blends, discovering how they can support the immune system, improve sleep, reduce anxiety and stress, and promote healthy digestion. The hands-on experience of crafting a custom tea blend to take home was a great way to engage those attending.
Paul and Jo from Green Aspirations joined us for a workshop learning experience, explaining the importance and benefits of coppicing – one of the oldest methods of woodland management across the UK, involving repeatedly felling trees at the base to encourage regrowth. Coppicing comes with many benefits including faster growth, longer tree life, increased biodiversity as well as providing a sustainable wood source – what’s not to love! Using Hazel sticks coppiced from sites in Central Scotland, Paul and Jo showed the workshop participants how to carve the wood into mushrooms to take home.
Attendees were also able to join a range of table talks with climate speakers and well as the chance for plenty of questions and discussions with the group.
Tim Crick is the Project Leader of Community Heat Team at Sustainable West Linton and District and shared his experience leading the project. With Thermology and Energy Efficiency certifications, Tim has successfully designed and implemented the Heat Survey process to support local communities in identifying where houses are losing heat and therefore allowing people to take actions to reduce heat loss. Locating areas of heat loss through infrared thermal technology not only helps you save money but can keep you warm throughout cold winters and even help reduce CO2 emissions. The Community Heat Team for Sustainable West Linton and District was set up in 2022 and operates on a volunteer basis in which funding initially provided to the project by the National Lottery Community Fund, enabling training to be provided to volunteers and high-quality technology to be purchased. Currently, Tim is working with several communities across the Borders and East Lothian to support in establishing their own Community Heat Teams with funding from CLLD grant support.
CEO of Good Green Futures, Donna Wood, held a table talk to discuss their most ambitious project yet. Partnering with nine charities dedicated to prioritising and promoting sustainable consumption, the initiative aims to establish a large-scale planet friendly shopping and leisure facility in Stirling city centre. Alongside these like-minded charities, Good Green Futures is working towards creating a space that will enable sustainable consumption through an accessible facility that offers a marketplace for pre-loved goods, a library of things, repair services and makerspaces. At Good Green Futures, protecting the environment and supporting local communities through environmental research, employability and training opportunities is top of their priorities. Through this project, the hub will serve as a space to facilitate all these goals, allowing for sustainable practices and community collaboration whilst encouraging circular economy.
Mia Lalane, the Rural Youth Action Network Project Lead at Scottish Rural Action joined us for a table talk, sharing and discussing her work and passion for strengthening youth networks for young rural and island people and the importance of building communities for like minded young people in more isolated areas of Scotland. Alongside an emphasis on climate action, Mia explained the many areas of concern for young people in rural areas that often overlap and are interlinked with climate related issues. As a founding member of the Forth Valley and Lomond Youth Local Action Group, Mia has a great extent of experience and is an important member of a growing family of Youth Local Action Groups across rural regions of Scotland who are passionate about improving rural living for young people and care about the wellbeing of their local area.
Thank you to everyone who came along and joined us for this event, we hope to see you again soon, and be sure to check out our funds and training programme.
