About New Caledonian Woodlands

New Caledonian Woodlands is a charity (SC043960) delivering projects with a focus on Edinburgh and the Lothians. There are 2 primary aims rooted at our core, intimately inter-twined: to encourage environmental sustainability and connection & to support people to improve their mental wellbeing and employability. Our forum for doing this is local woodland and orchard sites. We have grown gradually since 2006, starting out with 1 staff member but now having a staff team of 8 (5.2 fte). We are a small grassroots charity with a value-led and innovative approach that over the past 11 years has generated effective outcomes that have become progressively stronger.

Whether planting new woodland or managing old ones, making woodcraft items such as spoons and spurtles from trees felled by hand, pressing hand-picked apples for juice or learning more about environmental impact and how to reduce it, we are busy in local woods most days – working with around 500 people each year. Our ‘people projects’ focus on supporting adults experiencing mental ill-health and social isolation towards active lives and employment, while our ‘planet projects’ focus on encouraging people to migrate towards greener lifestyles. We deliver 9 distinct projects, many in partnership, drawing together the 2 key spheres of our work to address social and environmental needs. Our work is responsive to local need and innovative in its approach, generating strong & multi-faceted outcomes with longevity.

Our values:

  1. Integrity:Always being true to our core mission and to our values
  2. Contribution:Enabling people to achieve positive change.
  3. Connection:Deepening relationships with people and with the planet.
  4. Experiential:Learning that engages the whole person.
  5. Warmth:Personable and sensitive – a warm welcome and a fond farewell.
  6. Courageous:A willingness to be brave – to stand by our values to achieve amazing things.
  7. Inclusive:Welcoming diversity and empowering people to flourish.
  8. Enterprising:Visionary and forward thinking in the pursuit of environmental and financial sustainability.

People projects:

  1. Good Wood. Woodland-based therapeutic activity for people experiencing mental ill-health.
  2. Fruitful Woods. Project for people experiencing mental ill-health but who are closer to returning to employment and need to gain experience and confidence in a work environment.
  3. Fruitful Woods Collective. Supporting 8 Fruitful Woods alumni in setting up as linked sole traders, using the craft skills they have gained from their Fruitful Woods placement.
  4. Branching Out. Woodland-based therapeutic activity for people experiencing mental ill-health, delivered on behalf of Forestry Commission Scotland.

Planet projects:

  1. Re-skilling Workshops. Teaching people forgotten skills for a more sustainable future.
  2. Woodland Weekends. Native species woodland creation, management and restoration events for volunteers.
  3. Team Challenge. Community-based environmental team challenge events for corporate groups that deliver free environmental benefits for community sites (schools, hospitals, woodlands and community centres).
  4. Community Wood-fuel project. Giving people the opportunity to work collectively in local native species woodlands to sustainably extract wood-fuel that can be used to heat their homes while also improving woodland biodiversity and resilience.
  5. Westburn Climate Action Network. Working in partnership with Whale Arts (Wester Hailes) to deliver a Scottish Government ‘Climate Challenge Fund’ funded sustainability project focused on food growing, recycling and reuse and sustainable transport.

In 2018 our input to the Westburn Climate Action Network will be scaled back and we will launch our new Westburn Woods project in the same area of the city.