The Active Forest pilot programme began in 2014 and was developed via a partnership between Sport
England and Forestry Commission England. The 3 year pilot focused on 5 public forest sites in England
managed by Forestry Commission England. The sites were large in size and already used by a mix of local
residents and visitors from further away. An Active Forest programme manager was appointed to oversee
the work and an Active Forest Coordinator (AFC) was recruited for each of the 5 forest sites. The AFC’s
developed a range of physical activity events, organised activities, and play on the day activities including
fun runs, Nordic walking, cycling, orienteering, table tennis, volleyball, wild running, parkrun and archery.
Each AFC sought to understand the existing types of visitors and the population surrounding their sites,
and focused on targeting those who were often less likely to meet the current recommendations for physical
activity. AFC’s delivered and ran some of the events and activities, while others were delivered by third party
providers, for example local sports clubs, independent professionals, and national groups such as British
Orienteering or parkrun. The 3 year pilot ended in 2017 and, due to the success of the programme, identified
in the monitoring and evaluation, the Active Forest programme has been scaled up. In 2018 it included 14
forest sites in England, and another 4 urban forest sites are due to be included in the programme from 2019.
