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We at the Centre for One Planet Living are pleased to have been engaged to rewrite the Local Development Strategy for Swansea’s Rural Development Programme’s Local Action Group.

Aerial shot of Swansea and its surrounding countryside.

Swansea and its surrounding area, which includes an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the Gower Peninsula.

The new strategy will focus its efforts on supporting the area to reduce its ecological footprint from the present unsustainable three planets to one planet.

The Swansea RDP Local Action Group has recognised the need to protect the Swansea area from the worst effects of climate change and the extinction crises facing the world.

The group comprises various stakeholders including the local council, conservation groups, and Natural Resources Wales.

It has realised that in the future it may not be possible for the area to import the things it needs from part of the world threatened by climate change. Therefore it needs to source more goods are services locally, which is better for the local economy anyway.

The new vision will be for a ‘one planet’ future for a more prosperous and attractive rural Swansea supported by more abundant natural resources.

The new strategy will help it become more self-reliant, by supporting it to produce more of what it consumes in a way that’s less damaging to people’s health and the environment. This should generate more local and meaningful jobs.

It would also mean measures to encourage an end to needless waste, thereby reducing the area’s ecological and carbon footprints.

The principal tool for achieving this is the bestowing of grants to fund projects by community groups and social enterprises. Only projects which meet with the new vision would be supported.

The work should be finished by Christmas.