Executive Summary
The report provides a forecast (or prediction) of the social return from investing in the Cumbernauld Glen Mountain Biking initiative. This provides opportunities for schoolchildren at Abronhill High School to take part in mountain biking on an urban trail as part of the school’s physical education curriculum.
The report forms part of a series of four Social Return on Investment (SROI) analyses of urban nature sites. The analysis was undertaken during 2010 by greenspace scotland supported by the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT).
Social Return on Investment (SROI) provides a principled approach that can be used to measure and account for a broad concept of value. It enables the social, environmental and economic benefits a project delivers to be calculated.
The Glen Wildlife reserve is an area of woodland that was frequently being used by mountain bikers. An increasing number of complaints led SWT, rather than trying to ban mountain bikers, to designate an area within the reserve for mountain biking, and to create graded trails.
To support use of the reserve for this purpose, the initiative with schools in the area was established. By managing mountain biking and incorporating it into the overall reserve management plan, it was hoped to increase the participation of young people in the sport, help improve the experience for other reserve users and encourage enjoyment of nature and wildlife for all.
The analysis identified those most affected by the initiative and recorded and valued some of the changes they experienced. These included:It was found that every £1 invested generated around £3 of benefits (applying a sensitivity analysis, which involved varying the number of pupils, puts the benefits figure in a range from £1 to £3).
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