Articles by the Funders of the Foula Rangers

Since 1999, Foula Heritage has been working to preserve and protect the rich natural and cultural heritage of this small and remote island community. With the appointment of three people to create a Ranger Service, this important work can be widened to cover all aspects of the island's fascinating history, traditions and wildlife.

Foula lies 15 miles west of Mainland Shetland. As one of the most remote communities in Europe, it is economically and socially fragile but with an exceptional natural environment. The whole island is designated a National Scenic Area, a European Special Protection Area for birds and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), with a separate SSSI covering the spectacular cliffs and coastline. The population currently numbers around 30, with 5 children of primary school age. With the exception of the nurse and schoolteacher, all of the inhabitants are engaged in crofting.

The original aim of Foula Heritage was to preserve the oral history of the older members of the community. With help from the local authority and the local enterprise company, this first objective has been achieved, and the new Rangers now have a brief to develop more ambitious plans. Shetland Islands Council, Shetland Enterprise, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Crofters Commission, Shetland Regeneration Partnership and the Foula community itself have all contributed to the process of setting up and funding the Foula Heritage Ranger Service. The seasonal Ranger Service, which will run as a three-year project for five months of each year, will be used to link important environmental and cultural aspects of life on Foula and help the community develop new skills. The project combines environmental and cultural work with visitors, and skills development work with the community, including the development of close links with the school.

The Crofters Commission regards the Foula Heritage Community Ranger Project as an excellent example of a community 'on the edge', recognising the need to create economic value out of its distinctiveness, and setting out to do it in a planned and sustainable way. Among the targets set for the Rangers, creating interpretative and educational material on Foula's natural and cultural heritage is a top priority. The Ranger Service will also undertake environmental monitoring and conservation management on Foula, and work to develop the skills base within Foula Heritage and the wider Foula community.

Chairman of the Commission David Green, comments: "Three individuals have been appointed to share this challenging post. Two will live permanently on the island and the third will live on the island for the summer months. The appointment of the Rangers is an important way of preserving a threatened cultural heritage, documenting the rich natural resources of the island and bringing new skills into a community building its own unique sustainable future." For more information contact Elsie Matheson, Crofters Commission on Tel:01463 633414 or Christine Moodie, Dynam on Tel: 01463 233692.

Exciting times on Foula. Published by Scottish Natural Heritage.

This September saw the end of a busy first season for the Foula Ranger Service. The “rangers” – Isobel Holbourn, Sheila Gear and Tony Mainwood – proved to everyone how successful a job share arrangement could be with the right amount of dedication. Here Isobel Holbourn explains how the Ranger Service came about and what they have achieved this year.

The Foula Ranger Service wasn’t intended at first to be a job-share. We started with a fairly modest initiative from our local community group Foula Heritage. Foula is a very special place, and we wanted to help other people enjoy our wonderful natural environment while they were in the isle. Foula also has a unique cultural heritage and way of life, and we wanted to make use of all these exceptional resources in a sustainable way, and hopefully along the way increase opportunities for sustainable tourism in the island.

We carried out a successful feasibility study in 2002, and managed to raise funding over last winter for a seasonal ranger for three years. We advertised the post in the orthodox way, thinking it would be good to increase our population by one for 5 or 6 months of the year. We had 12 applications, some from international candidates. The Foula Heritage committee received support and training from a steering group of funders (SIC, SNH, the Crofters Commision, Shetland Enterprise, and Walls & Sandness Community Council), and with their help we interviewed 4 candidates. We offered the post to an outstanding young lass from Cheshire and were all set to start in early May. To our great disappointment she turned the job down. The season had already begun and as an emergency measure three of us in the island suggested to the funders that we shared the job for the first summer - Sheila and I live permanently in Foula, and Tony spends a large part of every year in the island. We all had commitments which prevented any one of us doing the whole job, but each of us had particular skills and experience we could contribute. We had to convince the funding bodies – but that’s how the three-way Foula ranger job-share idea came about ….. by accident.

Foula is a beautiful spectacular place with many interesting features and a unique culture and way of life, and visitors come for a variety of different reasons. We wanted to ensure that every visitor had a good experience according to their particular interest, so one or more rangers met every boat and plane that came into the isle, and spoke individually to visitors and offered information and help. One of the first things we did was create a welcome and information leaflet, giving visitors basic information and advice. These were offered to the nearly 700 visitors we had over the summer and autumn. One of our highlights this year was the visit of 12 members of Bressay History Group who spent the day with us going round the island and on guided walks. Another was the number of visits made by 2 small cruise ships in May. These were mostly middle-aged and older people. We tailored the guided walks to suit their ability, and they enjoyed their welcome so much they made several more unscheduled stops on later trips.

SO WHAT ARE THE KEY FACTORS THAT HAVE MADE THE FOULA RANGER JOB-SHARE SO SUCCESSFUL?

There’s a wealth of knowledge and experience available in any community – One person can’t know it all. The job-share rangers could be in three places at once if the isle was busy, and we could contribute 3 different lots of knowledge to people interested in different things. Also we’ve all lived in the island a long time, we’re passionate about the place, and it’s easy to talk to people about something you love and know intimately. People enjoy that personal touch.

Job-share allows many people to contribute who can’t afford the time to take on the full job. Three of us were doing the scheduled work, but many people in the community contributed skills and time like with art-work, management of visitors at busy times, and specialist knowledge like moths and archaeology. Others will be helping with the practical work of upgrading gates and stiles to improve and manage access.

Mutual support of team-work gives confidence to all. We all three had different individual skills, Tony in visitor management, Sheila in environmental monitoring, and myself in administration and communication. All of us gained confidence and benefited greatly from learning skills from the others. I was astonished how much more I learned about Foula on one guided walk with Sheila! We kept in touch all week as we did our share of the tasks, and met face to face every Friday morning to update each other, bounce ideas about, and plan the priorities for the following week. We met with the committee of Foula Heritage every month to update them, and circulated regular news updates round the community.

Having the project coming from the community gives ownership and a vested interest which ensure it succeeds. It turned out there was a large element of community development in the setting up and running of this project. Many visitors commented how all the people they met in the island smiled and waved and passed the time of day. As a community we can run better meetings, communicate quickly and efficiently throughout the island, and ask for practical input and help when we need it. Our computer skills are improving all the time, and confidence is spilling over now into new projects

SCOTTISH NATURAL HERITAGE

Fair share on Foula

The ranger service operated on the Shetland island of Foula is both remote and a bit different. It’s operated by Foula Heritage – a community group established to promote the island’s natural and cultural heritage. The aim is to help people find out more about the island through guided walks, talks, events and project work with the local school.

On Foula, delivery comes, not from a lone ranger, but through a unique three-way job-share. Islanders Isobel Holbourn, Tony Mainwood and Sheila Gear are the intrepid trio. “People living on remote islands don’t have a normal 9-to-5 routine,” says SNH area officer, Karen Hall. “So working part-time can fit in with their other activities on the crofts.” “The job-share rangers also get other members of the community to help with things like transport and teas for people who come to Foula on boat trips. That means that more and more Foula dwellers are seeing the benefits of the island’s tremendous natural heritage.”

“After advertising the post in an orthodox way,” says Isobel Holbourn, “an excellent applicant from outside the island turned the job down.” “So it was almost by accident that we needed to convince the funding bodies to support the job-share. In the first season we created a welcome and information leaflet for nearly 700 visitors in the summer. We also tailored guided walks to suit different ages and abilities.”

The three members of the team all have different skills: Tony in visitor management, Sheila in environmental monitoring and Isobel in administration and communication. “All of us have gained confidence from learning skills from the others,” says Isobel. “It’s gone from strength to strength,” says Karen Hall, “and it could provide an example for other places of a different type of job-sharing.”

SHETLAND ISLANDS COUNCIL

Good Practice in Community Achievement Work between Foula Heritage Ranger Service, Shetland Regeneration Partnership and others.

Foula is one of Shetland’s most remote islands, being a 2 hour ferry journey from the mainland. Foula Heritage was formed as a voluntary group in December 1999. Amongst the longer term objectives of the group was the appointment of a part time, seasonal Heritage Ranger. Following detailed consultation with the residents of Foula, local and other tourist service providers and agencies, the main purpose of the Ranger was identified as being: “to increase the socio-economic benefits of sustainable heritage tourism in Foula”.

Three Foula residents were appointed as job share Rangers for three years at the beginning of the 2003 tourist season. A total of 680 visitors came to the island in 2003, 50% more than projected figures estimated. Many members of the local community participated as volunteers, from talking about local culture and folklore with visitors to education activities with local schoolchildren.

A variety of guided walks with accompanying leaflets have been developed, with new walk route stiles, gates and signs put in place with the assistance of SIC Infrastructure. The three rangers have undertaken various training programmes, including oral history, funding applications, computer skills, archaeology, flora, moths monitoring, access issues and SWOT analysis.

This has involved both utilising their combined wealth of experience, and also the knowledge offered by other agencies, including the Crofters Commission, Fair Isle Bird Observatory, Shetland Amenity Trust and Shetland Islands Council.

SCOTTISH NATURAL HERITAGE 2006

Foula Heritage Ranger Service – Shetland

Promoting the benefits of sustainable tourism for Foula

Introduction

Foula Heritage Ranger Service is operated by Foula Heritage, a community group established to promote the island’s natural and cultural heritage. Three part-time rangers, all of whom have lived on Foula for many years and have a keen interest in, and understanding of, the island’s natural heritage, run activities that aim to:

1. Safeguard and conserve the natural and cultural heritage.

2. Raise awareness of the value of the natural and cultural heritage of Foula within and without the island to assist the viability of the community.

3. Further increase the socio-economic benefits of sustainable natural and cultural heritage tourism.

4. Contribute to the viability of the Foula community by enhancing community cohesion and enabling further sustainable community development.

5. Involve local people in environmental monitoring and conservation management, co-operating with, and contributing to, other agencies work.

6. Develop interpretive and educational information about Foula’s rich natural and cultural heritage for both the local community and visitors to the island.

7. Develop the skills base within Foula Heritage and the wider community through appropriate training and development opportunities.

The Ranger Service is supported by Scottish Natural Heritage, Foula Heritage, Shetland Enterprise, Crofters Commission, Shetland Island Council’s Community Services, and Walls and Sandness Community Council.

Achievements

Key successes include:

1. Successfully attracting funding to recruit three part-time rangers.

2. Delivered five interpretive and seven access projects.

3. Development of IT skills training for rangers and volunteers.

4. An increase in tourists accessing ranger service.

5. Encouraging of more cruise ships to the island.

6. Sharing experiences with other crofting communities in the Shetland and Orkney islands.

The Future

What began as a pilot project has now established itself as an example of good practice in sustainable community development which combines enhancement of the visitor’s experiences with developing the knowledge and skills of the island community. The service plans to:

1. Undertake ranger and associated training and community development work three days per week between November and mid-April. This will include IT training to develop a Foula website, encouraging local talent and skills to produce signage, artwork, photographs and small souvenirs to enhance the ranger service, and developing the use of cultural knowledge for interpretive and educational purposes.

2. Increase the number of visitors to a sustainable and manageable level over a further three years and enhance the visitor experience further.

3. Increase the number of trainees by one per year to a total of five, and continue training young local guides to a level of competence that allows them to develop new self-guided walks on their own.

4. Continue informal environmental education within the community.

5. Continue the established pattern of seabird monitoring on Foula by training and using young people where appropriate.

6. Produce interpretive booklets and CDs of Foula’s flora, fauna, and archaeology, for sale to visitors and interested parties.

7. Identify and help fulfil training needs in the off-season to help members of the community upgrade or learn new skills which could contribute to the Ranger Service and be of benefit in other areas.

Key messages

Foula Ranger Service contributes to the national priorities for Community Learning Development by:

1. Engaging with young people and adults in achieving learning on the natural heritage, and further development of employability skills.

2. Supporting achievement through community capacity building by developing the skills of community members in environmental management and delivering environmental education.

Learning Points

1. Employing local people can ensure that staff knowledge and their commitment to the project is far greater than might otherwise be the case.

2. Working to achieve sustainable cultural natural heritage tourism can have economic and community development benefits for communities.

Further Information

Isobel Holbourn, Secretary, Foula Heritage, Freyers, Foula, Shetland. ZE2 9PN Tel: 01595 753233. Email: iholbourn@btinternet.com

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