Coed Talylan is a 70 acre woodland on the western edge of the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons), Wales.

We have founded community land trust to develop a co-sufficient low-impact housing co-operative through the One Planet Development (OPD) framework that will exemplify the social, environmental and economic benefits of mutual home ownership for aspiring landworkers.

The Coed Talylan Land Trust, a community benefit society that will serve as the co-operative land owning structure to ensure that land will be held for the benefit and well-being of future generations. We have adapted a form of “multi-stakeholder” co-operative that balances the interests and involvement of the membership as a whole while ensuring the security of those members who build their homes on the land. The areas of the land that will be used for the OPD housing will be managed by the Coed Talylan Housing Co-operative, a society led by these Home Members.

We believe in the importance of placing the meaning of the home at the heart of the wider movement for agroecology and food sovereignty as a force for social change. We hope that through developing this model of co-sufficient low-impact housing in support of a new era of agroecological land and resource management we will help to create a more resilient, bioregional economy.

With this in mind we are developing business activities that draw on innovative techniques of mushroom cultivation, horticulture, timber processing, knowledge sharing and training in skills essential for building distributed networks of rural enterprise. We plan to expand on the infrastructure already in place to allow for more training opportunities.

Alongside this we are designing a 30 acre fungal nature reserve to engage and empower a wider community of interest in fungi and eco-restoration. This Refungium project will co-ordinate volunteer action to regenerate this former spruce plantation into a place for learning and knowledge sharing in mycology, woodland management and social forestry.