Marine Management in North Devon

North Devon Biosphere, commissioned as a pilot by UK government, is testing new approaches to applying Natural Capital approaches to managing the marine environment. The work is funded through the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. The work encompasses surveying the marine habitats in the area, understanding the state of the  natural capital and the ecosystem services they provide and mapping to the beneficiaries of those services. A risk register is created that highlights the opportunities for investing and managing those habitats and realising the benefits.

The plan extends beyond the transition area of the biosphere reserve to establish the boundary conditions for managing and monitoring the benefits of management.

Critical to the management of those assets is the governance of the area and by applying the principles of the ecosystem approach, it is hoped to develop a co-management model to enable local scale management.

The Biosphere Team is working with WWF(UK), Blue Marine Foundation, University of Plymouth,University of Exeter, Plymouth Marine Labs, Devon and Severn Inshore fisheries and conservation agency and the Maritime Management Organisation.

More information can be found here.