• Organisation: North East Community Forest (Newcastle City Council, accountable body)
• Time commitment: 10 day(s) per annum
• Length of term: 3 Years

Wanted: Local Tree Champion

Created over the last 30 years, England’s Community Forests are located in and around some of the nation’s largest towns and cities. Each is a collaboration between councils and local, regional and national organisations who work to enact a government-approved 30-year vision for landscape improvement known as a Forest Plan. Currently there are 15 Community Forests, of which the North East Community Forest (NECF) is part of, having joined the programme in July 2021.

The North East Community Forest is the Community Forest for Newcastle, North and South Tyneside, Gateshead, Sunderland, and Durham, working in partnership with local authorities, landowners, businesses and communities to plant trees across the region and improve our natural environment.

Now, facing a climate and ecological emergency, we need to plant trees and restore nature with a new urgency, involving communities and targeting areas of need. Can you help champion and guide our work at this pivotal time as Chair of the North East Community Forest?

About the role

Chair of The North East Community Forest

We are looking for an individual who can help our Forest Team and Forest Partnership to thrive, so that we can help to tackle the climate emergency, biodiversity collapse, connect people to nature, and set the scene for a sustainable green recovery post-Covid.

The Forest Partnership and Forest Team have a strong track record of delivering projects and programmes that create and manage treescapes and woodlands. We have developed our Forest Partnership locally, regionally, and nationally so that we can learn from others and share information about what we do.

We have challenges ahead. We need to accelerate our new planting to help to achieve national and local climate emergency targets; we need to connect even more people to our work and support new businesses and jobs in our sector.

We also have enormous opportunities, with increased availability of funding, a policy framework that is as supportive as possible and a vibrant partnership, keen to do more and see a green recovery post-Covid. Our yet to be developed Forest Plan will set a clear vision for our work. If you have the ambition, enthusiasm, skills, networks and most importantly the passion to help us achieve our goals, we would love to hear from you.

At the heart of our Forest Partnership is the NECF Steering Group, with each of our six Local Authority Partners represented by their nominated Councillor. This Group oversees the planning and delivery of a positive, exciting and beneficial programme of work that delivers wellbeing, climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity and education as well as a host of other agendas. We are looking for an independent Chair for our Forest Partnership Steering Group. Our new Chair will lead a strong Partnership determined to continue deliver environmental improvements for our communities.

For more information on the role, please refer to the supporting documents. If, having read these documents, you think you may be interested in this role, we would love to hear from you.

Please send your CV and a covering letter setting out why you would like to take on this role to Lloyd Jones (Forest Manager of the North East Community Forest) at lloyd.jones@necf.org.uk. You can also contact Lloyd for an informal discussion before submitting – please call 07974 588 063, or email him for a Microsoft Teams link.

The recruitment process will involve an interview by the Elected Members (Councillors) from the NECF Steering Group, chaired by the Forest Manager, Lloyd Jones. Interviews to take place at the Newcastle City Council Civic Centre on Thursday 29 February 2024.