Halesworth Community Energy & Biodiversity Workshops 2026
2026 Community Energy & Biodiversity Workshops review
This year we joined community energy with biodiversity. Launched with Professor Peter Hobson’s wake up talk, we went to Westhall for a workshop on Community Energy and returned to Halesworth to scope out a Biodiversity Action Plan (which includes land use for energy)
Link to talk and photographs here. Brief summary:
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- Dead wood matters
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- Treat every system as complex. Spiders are as important as butterflies.
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- We need to be adaptive in the face of climate change, rather than being too focused on mitigation. Learn how to adapt with our food and water systems,
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- If we are going to turn this ship around we need radical transformative strategies.
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- Don’t wait for the crisis to happen, be adaptive, be proactive, get in there, and, start looking at scenarios based on threat analysis. Ask yourself what do we do to divert ourselves away from ultimate entropy.
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- Look to international examples of regenerative agriculture and close to nature forestry as we catch up locally.
Community Energy workshop in Westhall Village Hall.
Community Energy potential @ Westhall Village Hall
We heard how community-led energy projects keep benefits local – from cheaper energy bills to investment in local facilities.
Local people explored their area to see how and if solar and wind could fit into their landscape.
View slides, photographs and more here
Scoping out our Halesworth Biodiversity Action Plan
Halesworth and all neighboring parish councils were invited to this workshop to explore if we could collaborate across our wildlife corridors.
LINK to report here
Many thanks to all who helped make this weekend so stimulating:
Reverend Dominic Doble who opened the event at St Mary’s Church; St Mary’s church for hosting, and Jason for his invaluable tech support; the Kitchen Band for playing; Bacchus Beyond for supplying the wine; Westhall Community Hall for hosting; FEL (including John Taylor and Katie Graham) for organising of the workshop, Halesworth Town Council for their support and Joyce, the Chair, for attending all events; all the great Halesworth ASH team and volunteers, especially Edith and Pippa for doing the food and drink.
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