Biosffer Dyfi held its Annual Meeting for the public at the end of October. It was an opportunity to celebrate a year in which we have been able to carry out plenty of activities, thanks to a grant from Welsh Government and input from the UK National Commission for UNESCO. [darllen yn Gymraeg]
It was also an opportunity to look back over more than quarter of a century of ecodyfi, the social enterprise that has provided the secretariat for the Biosphere Partnership since 2009. And of course to celebrate the work of Andy Rowland, who has been its manager since 1998 and retired this summer. His role has been taken over by James Cass and Jane Powell, with funding from ecodyfi reserves. This will allow the Biosphere to carry on its work while it seeks the long-term funding that will secure its future.
Recently, the Partnership agreed that the company that has up till now been trading as ‘ecodyfi’ should change its trading name to ‘Biosffer Dyfi’. That means that the Biosphere is effectively a legal entity, rather than a partnership, and is in a better position to seek funds. It may go on to become a charity as well.
But it wasn’t just about us updating our supporters. We also wanted to give people the chance to tell us what they are up to, and we were pleased to have a full house of people from different backgrounds. We had farmers and growers, staff from community and environmental organisations and researchers from Aberystwyth University, many of them partners in Biosphere projects past and present.
In addition, there was a community councillor and numerous community volunteers who were putting time into local history, community gardening, swift conservation, peatland restoration, well-being programmes for school children, community meals, renewable energy schemes and community composting. There were also people who came as citizens wanting to support their local community, some of them with very long ties to the area, others new.
The event was testimony to the enthusiasm and expertise that is present in the Biosphere, and the appetite that people have for being part of something bigger. While there are many government policies that affect our area, covering matters such as farming, food and drink, transport, energy and so on, the challenge is to bring them all together, and it was good to see how well that can work.
To use the language of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, localities and regions are where ‘integration’ of government policy naturally happens, with all its challenges. We want to do more of that, working with both government and the voluntary sector to ‘create a sustainable future we can all be proud of’, as our mission statement says.
We want not just to have more activity but also to cultivate the deeper understanding that creates trust in uncertain times. We hope everyone who lives in the Biosphere will want to be part of this.
You can download slides from the 12 or so people who stood up and talked about their work, below. You can read about the Biosphere’s interesting year on our blog. You can sign up for our new e-mail newsletter on this link. And you can get in touch any time by emailing coordinator (at) biosfferdyfi.cymru. We want to hear from you!
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