Heritage

ENHANCING CULTURES, HERITAGE AND THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

CAITHNESS ENVIRONMENT FORUM
This Forum is a subgroup of the Partnership which brings representatives of community and agency bodies to discuss environmental issues in Caithness. The group has chosen to focus initially on four topics:

• Carrying out a Greenspace Audit in Caithness
• Long term timber supply
• Recycling (particularly farm wastes)
• Agri-environment funding and biodiversity

The group meets quarterly and minutes of meetings can be downloaded here under the Heritage section

CAITHNESS BIODIVERSITY
The Caithness Biodiversity Action Group (CBAG) is supported by Highland Council and its role is to oversee the implementation of the Biodiversity Action Plan http://www.caithness.org/nature/biodiversity/actionplan2003/contents.htm for the county. The group is made up of individuals with specialist environmental knowledge, Highland Council Rangers, RSPB, the National Farmers Union, and other interested individuals and organisations. They are currently working on a list of projects (documents page) to enhance and promote biodiversity in Caithness. Minutes of CBAG are available here( Documents page).

CAITHNESS ARCHAEOLOGY
The archaeological resource in Caithness is amazingly rich. People have lived here for over 10,000 years yet most of our archaeology remains beneath the ground - a high quality resource that is largely untapped and untouched.

The Caithness Archaeological Trust (CAT) www.caithnessarchaeology.org.uk was set up in 2002 to promote and co-ordinate the development of all aspects of archaeology in Caithness. CAT aims to re-engage the people of Caithness with their heritage and cultural roots in a positive way, not only as spectators but as active participants in the development and conservation of an increasingly threatened cultural resource.

Achavanich http://www.scran.ac.uk/stones/sites/achavani.htm is being developed by Caithness Heritage Tourism Advisory Group, a steering group set up following a public meeting initiated by the Highland Council. The project aims to enable physical access and introduce interpretation to the site allowing people to learn about the local heritage. Developing the archaeology is vital to allow communities access to their heritage and to bring on the fledgling archaeological tourist industry.

THE ARTS IN CAITHNESS
Caithness is fortunate to have a wealth of activity in all the arts sectors - performance, visual, crafts and the written word - and many people and organisations with an interest in the arts belong to a group called Caithness Arts http://www.caithnessarts.org.uk/
. This group aims to support and develop arts activity in Caithness. A primary objective is to achieve improved performance facilities in the county, to showcase the work of its member groups and to encourage visiting national and international arts companies to come to the far north. In addition, there is also a Caithness Arts Forum (link to documents page), which provides a round-table where people from the arts community and the public agencies can come together constructively. The objectives of the Forum are as follows:
• To develop a local policy for arts
• To provide a forum for the exchange of views on how member organisations can work together well
• To develop a higher profile for the arts economically and culturally
• To allow communities to feedback to each other and the public agencies about their arts activities/projects
• To help develop a common view of the arts as integral to a healthy economic and social infrastructure
• To ensure that the arts sector is fully involved in the community planning agenda for Caithness
Minutes of meetings can be found here under the Heritage section.

Caithness Partnership

Heritage

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