Dorset AONB Sustainable Development Fund

The Dorset AONB Sustainable Development Fund aims to get local people thinking about how they can help keep the landscape in great shape for future generations to enjoy. Now in its fifteenth year, the AONB is proud to have funded over 250 local projects, all very different but all with the local landscape at their core.

The priorities for the Dorset AONB are laid out in the latest Dorset AONB Management Plan which sets out what it thinks needs to be done over the next 5 years to safeguard and celebrate this fantastic landscape. The Dorset AONB hopes that the projects supported by the Sustainable Development Fund will help it achieve some of these priorities.

However, you may also have your own ideas about what makes your area special and what needs to be done but need some support to help transform your ideas into action.

The Dorset AONB Sustainable Development Fund can support projects that:

• Conserve and enhance the natural beauty and heritage of the Dorset AONB.
• Support the social and economic wellbeing of local communities in sustainable ways that care for the environment.
• Have the support and involvement of local people or meet a recognised local need.
• Help deliver the Dorset AONB Management Plan.

The AONB would particularly like to support projects that:

• Encourage everyone to get involved, including young people.
• Remove barriers to all people’s enjoyment and involvement in the countryside.
• Bring organisations and people together in tackling problems or promoting new ideas.
• Encourage links between urban groups and those resident in the AONB.
• Demonstrate innovation or best practice.
• Address the climate and ecological emergency.
• And In addition, this year, help mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

You can use the Sustainable Development Fund to establish new projects, or to add value or new dimensions to existing projects.