Introduction
Living Forest Communities is a community development model that accomplishes two goals.Primarily, we wish to establish and maintain sustainable natural forest ecosystems in perpetuity through land conservation and ecosystem-based forestry.
Secondly, we achieve this objective through the creation of attractive, "light-on-the-land" residential hamlets modeled after traditional European towns.These communities feature clustered home sites, and focus on the use of green building technologies. Through the acquisition of privately owned forestland, we achieve these two objectives by placing protective covenants on 80% - 90% of the land and reducing the environmental impact of development and human activities. This protects the most ecologically sensitive areas of the forest by permitting only sustainable activities such as organic gardening, eco-tourism, environmental education, eco- and agroforestry and related value-added manufacturing activities. The sale of the building sites pays for the initial acquisition of the land, and saves a majority of the privately owned forest in perpetuity.
With appropriate ecological monitoring by a respected land trust organization, the single stem harvesting, re-planting and management of the forest will provide on-going jobs and incomes, and forests that over time acquire the characteristics of an old growth forest. The nature of the hamlet creates smaller than conventional lots for smaller houses, which contributes to housing attainability and a mix of age and income. We believe that this unique model is one of the best means of saving forest ecosystems in perpetuity because the community committed to its conservation lives embedded within it.
Our newest project, Elkington Forest, is located on Vancouver Island, only 30 minutes north of Victoria. Please visit our new website for more information about this beautiful forested land south of Shawnigan Lake.
For more information about Living Forest Communities, to meet some of our team and to watch insightful interviews with the experts, we would like to invite you to view our videos.
