LandShare is a small but influential not-for-profit organisation established in August 2008 to be a catalyst for change in the way we manage land and its resources.

No matter who we are or where we live, land underpins the fundamentals of our survival; we need it for food, fuel, shelter, and clean water.  In our finite and uncertain world securing these fundamentals will require action which is based on long-term thinking.  This will mean shifting away from resource supply chains which undermine their own viability, to ones which are reliable and self-sustaining.  We think that this will involve greater diversity, with more and different land-based businesses and more complex landscapes.  We also think that it will involve stronger links between land, products and people; whether that means the ability to dig your own vegetables or the opportunity to own shares in your landscape.

How we work

LandShare translates what is known and thought by scientists and decision-makers into practical solutions; frameworks for action that can be adopted as realistic ways of doing business.  We select concepts that will deliver our aims, we find funding to develop them, we draw together the skills of experts and practitioners, and we share the resulting resources and know-how through events and open-source media.  Spin-off projects, where our work is adapted to specific applications, are carried out on a case-by-case basis. 

Defining features of our approach are:

• Making connections. We know policymakers, farmers, foresters, academics, and communicators. By putting these people together we generate unexpected and creative results.
• Practical Action. By working closely with partners we make sure that all of our projects are integrated with practical action. This informs our results, and provides case-studies for others to learn from.
• Knowledge transfer. We translate theory into frameworks for action; communicated through practical information resources, working examples, web-based tools, and through linking people up.
• Probability Management. We're managing land in an uncertain world. We aim to explicitly manage the risks and opportunities this brings. We think this can result in good ethics and good business sense.

In 2010 and 2011 we will be working on four main projects:

1. How to Feed a City.  A project which provides communities and local institutions with the tools to understand and influence the long-term viability of their food supply.
2. How to Share Land.  A project which promotes and supports land diversification through the establishment of partnerships between land owners and small-scale commercial farmers.
3. Energy Positive.  An auditing framework, to help land managers decide how to minimise their long-term exposure to rises and fluctuations in fossil fuel prices.
4. The Bread Festival.  An annual event which promotes ways of linking real bread from real places, to real people.