Our Structure
President of the Cambrian Mountains Initiative - HRH The Prince of Wales
This role will involve HRH The Prince of Wales providing the high profile to ensure national and international visibility to the Cambrian Mountains brand, and convening the key private sector investors and customers necessary for long term sustainability. The President will be supporting initiatives through visits to farms and projects in the area, licensing the use of HRH's watercolour of the Cambrian Mountains as the Cambrian Mountains Initiative brand, and chairing one meeting a year of the Initiative steering group.
The Cambrian Mountains Steering Group is chaired by Peter Davies, Sustainable Development Commissioner for Wales.
This steering group oversees the key strands of the initiative and include the chairs of the working groups, chief executives of the main public sector partners, Welsh Assembly Government and representatives from private and community organisations. Where appropriate, members of the steering group will also be trustees of the Cambrian Mountain charity which will be set up through the initiative.
The Cambrian Mountains Company Limited
A company limited by guarantee has been established with Directors drawn from the Cambrian Mountains Initiative Steering Group. The objects are to ‘promote the sustainability of rural communities in the Cambrian Mountains’.
It is intended to secure charitable status and to operate a subsidiary trading company to market under the Cambrian Mountain brand. The Cambrian Mountains charity will be at the heart of the Cambrian Mountains integrated rural development initiative. It will receive funds from royalties for the use of the Cambrian Mountains brand, grants from public sector and trusts, sales of lithographs of HRH's watercolour and private sector donations.
The funds received will be used to invest in initiatives that fulfill the object of sustaining the economy, communities and environment of the Cambrian Mountains, providing a model for integrated rural development in upland Wales.
The Produce Marketing Group is chaired by Gareth Rowlands, co-founder of Rachel’s Organic Dairy.
The group has been working with Cambrian Mountains Lamb Group to secure a market for their products, and its objective is to work with other farmer/producer groups in the area.
An application for funding from the Welsh Assembly Governments’ Rural Development Plan for Wales 2007-2013 under the Supply Chain Efficiencies Scheme was approved in mid March 2009. This will enable the appointment of a Business Manager and Project Coordinator to take forward the business plan.
The 5-year Business Plan is for the development of the project to establish the infrastructure to develop a range of products within the agri-food and forestry sectors within the Cambrian Mountains catchments area. The products will be a range of farm produce carrying the Cambrian Mountains brand which has the endorsement of HRH The Prince of Wales.
The Eco-systems Group is led by Countryside Council for Wales and chaired by John Lloyd Jones OBE.
An Ecosystems Services Project Officer has been appointed to take forward the work of influencing and trialling land management measures that could help to influence the future agri–environment measures and the measurement of the existing Carbon Footprint of farm businesses.
The Tourism Group is led by Tourism Partnership Mid Wales and chaired by Paul Loveluck.
Tourism Partnership Mid Wales has been leading on the development of the tourism theme acting as the regional co-coordinating body on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government. One of the key aims is to ensure that the potential of the tourism element of this initiative is developed in an appropriate and sustainable way.
The Built Environment, Heritage & Communities Groups involve the Princes' Regeneration Trust.
The Prince's Regeneration Trust have led an 'Historic Buildings Characterisation Project' in partnership with Cadw.
The Cambrian Mountains Initiative aims to enhance the historic environment of this rural area of Wales. It can do this by supporting farming communities to create opportunities for the continued use of vernacular buildings. In some cases this will hopefully enable farm buildings to remain in use for the purposes for which they were built. In other cases it will enable diversification to bring appropriate new uses to farm buildings that would otherwise be redundant and at risk of loss.
Vernacular buildings are an important asset to the rural distinctiveness of the Cambrian Mountains as much as the local produce. In order to consider how best to preserve this character we must record and understand the resource before then evaluating the best means of adaptive reuse.