Overview
The Active Forests Programme was established in 2014 and is a national partnership between Forestry England and Sport England. It supports and encourages people to live more physically active lives through visiting and connecting with the nation’s forests, which are managed by Forestry England. This Research Note presents findings from Phase 3 of the programme, which ran for three years from 2023 to 2026. It aimed to remove barriers to being physically active in a forest environment by 1) creating accessible and inclusive environments, 2) maintaining, growing, and diversifying the opportunities available across the nation’s forests, and 3) delivering health and wellbeing benefits, and tackling health inequalities.
Forestry England and Sport England, with support from National Lottery Funding, combine their resources to fund and host the programme. Activities (regular) and events (one off) in the forests are delivered by a network of providers that are coordinated by Forestry England’s Active Forests Coordinators (AFC) at each site. Forestry England also provide infrastructure and interpretation to facilitate self-led activities on a variety of trails (existing and new).