What is a Community?

Ecological communities are composed of populations which share a defined area

and interact.

Community ecology examines how species interactions influence community

structure and function.

Communities are Dynamic

Community structure is not static, but changes over time as a result of things like
the arrival and loss of species, and the effects of outside forces such as fires and
floods.
Dynamic – constantly changing

Community Dynamics

Community Dynamics is the process of change and development in communities of

all living organisms—including plants, microorganisms, and small and large creatures
of every sort.
Populations of an organism will appear in an environment as its requirements
for establishment are met. As the successional level of a community as a whole
advances, some species will begin to find that conditions become less suitable for its
reproduction. When this occurs, its population declines in number, and the species
may even disappear from the local environment.

Succession
Succession is the repeatable change in community composition through time
following a disturbance.

The Rule of Succession

There is a fundamental rule of succession that drives all thinking and
decision-making when dealing with the natural environment:

A species will move into an environment when the conditions

are suitable for its establishment,
 and will move out of that environment when the conditions
become unsuitable for its reproduction

What is COMMUNITY ACTION?

Community action is any activity that increases the understanding, engagement and
empowerment of communities in the design and delivery of local services.

Community action includes a broad range of activities and is sometimes described as

‘social action' or ‘community engagement'. These activities can vary in their
objective, the role the community plays, the types of activities involved, their scale
and their integration within the council. What they have in common is that they all
involve greater engagement of local citizens in the planning, design and delivery of
local services.

Why is community action important?

Community action is about putting communities at the heart of their own local
services. Involving communities in the design and delivery of services can help to
achieve a number of objectives, including:

Building community and social capacity – helping the community to share knowledge,
skills and ideas.
Community resilience – helping the community to support itself.
Prevention – a focus on early access to services or support, engagement in design,
cross-sector collaboration and partnerships.
Maintaining and creating wealth – for example helping people into employment or
developing community enterprises.

Role of the Community

The role the community plays can include community consultation, joint planning,
joint design, joint delivery and community-led activities.
The types of activity can include:

Asset transfer (either through formal transfer to bodies such as parish councils or
community interest companies, or transfer of their management to local community
and voluntary groups).
Making better use of physical resources, such as council-owned buildings, to support
community-led activities.
Community engagement in decision-making (for example through public
engagement events where the community helps to decide local priorities, co-design
or co-commission services).
Community networks
Community grants