The Social and Community Benefits of Angling

The Social and Community Benefits of Angling is a research project supported by the Big Lottery Fund research programme which is exploring the impact that angling has on participants, communities and angling organisations.

 

The project is working with a large range of national stakeholders such as the Angling Trust, Environment Agency, and the Angling Development Board of Scotland. It is also engaging with a numerous community and grass roots angling projects such as Get Hooked on Fishing, Trout in the Town, and angling providers in Assynt in North West Scotland. It is designed to research, inform and recommend change at organisational and policy making levels.
 

Millions of people go fishing, but little is widely known about the activity in terms of the particular benefits individuals, young people and local communities can get from it. Many claims are made about the personal, social and community impacts angling has although the evidence base for these has been under-developed, something this project seeks to address and disseminate to policy makers, researchers and the wider angling community.

 

Supported by the Big Lottery Fund research programme, this three year project is lead by Dr Adam Brown and Substance researchers, Paul Stolk and Dr Natalie Djohari. As part of the project, the team will undertake national level research into angling participation, as well as case study research into the Get Hooked on Fishing charity and the Assynt area of the North West Highlands of Scotland. Find out more and get involved at www.anglingresearch.org.uk and www.assynt.anglingresearch.org.uk

Testimonial

“It is estimated that 3.9 million people fish in the UK. However, not much is known about angling within policy or the wider public as a result of a lack of research. Our Research programme is all about looking at tackling exclusion and building local communities, and providing an evidence base of the potential and actual social benefits of angling is a very creative way of doing this.”
Sir Clive Booth, Chair of the Big Lottery Fund