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As we hurtle towards 2030 our commitments and ambition to protect and restore nature become more pressing by the day. Terrestrially, landscape ecology is well understood and examples of active restoration of our woodlands are underway across the country. However, our coastal areas are often overlooked when discussing the benefits of actively restoring nature in the UK.
Blue Marine, alongside partners at UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, University of Portsmouth, University of Essex and Zoological Society of London have published a report highlighting the intrinsic value of UK coastal habitats, and how we can ensure their long-term protection and restoration. The report highlights the benefits and ecosystem services provided by seagrass meadows, saltmarsh habitats, mudflats, oyster reefs and kelp forests but most importantly, how their ecological connectivity delivers healthy, resilient seas.
Ecological connectivity is an essential part of nature, necessary for the functionality of ecosystems, survival of wild animals and plant species and is crucial to ensuring genetic diversity and adaptation to climate change across all biomes and spatial scales. By protecting and restoring every feature of the seascape we can begin to efficiently harness the potential of our 12,500km of coastline in mitigating climate change alongside protecting commercial fish stocks and delivering biodiversity benefits.
This report recommends to UK and devolved governments how we can best implement the necessary policy changes to restore our fragmented habitats and provide long term protection for our incredible, biodiverse seascapes.
Professor Joanne Preston, Professor of Marine Biology, University of Portsmouth
The living world is inherently dynamic with many connected systems that we depend on. Our marine coastal habitats are no exception, yet due to decades and centuries of diminishing and degrading them, we have lost sight of how the system works across the living seascape. This report takes the focus away from individual habitats to demonstrate why we need to restore both habitat complexity and connectivity if we are to meet our climate, biodiversity and human wellbeing goals.
Angus Garbutt, Coastal Ecologist, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
This report provides a definition and collective vision of seascape restoration for the UK following consultation with international and UK experts across the science, policy, funding and delivery sectors, and provides underpinning scientific evidence. We recommend the development of a new seascape-scale licence to enable efficient delivery of nature recovery projects and a whole site approach to designating marine protected areas, prioritising connectivity. Our goal is to start a journey towards large-scale, multi-habitat restoration of coastal and near shore habitats in the UK and the term ‘seascape restoration’ is as widely understood, evidenced and delivered as its terrestrial counterpart.
Professor Graham Underwood, School of Life Sciences, University of Essex
The coastal waters of the UK are an important national resource, providing for society a wide range of ecosystem benefits. We know, if we are to restore these systems, and contribute to national and international efforts to repair our vital ecosystems, we need to engage in restoration at scale, and treat our waters as an integrated seascape. Healthy coastal seas can contribute to climate resilience, food production, improved water quality and societal well-being. This report highlights our current understanding, and gaps in knowledge that need to be addressed, that will support future seascape scale restoration.
Dan Crockett, Ocean & Climate Director, Blue Marine Foundation
In 2020 I convened a one day conference called Rewilding the Sea, the goal of which was to bring together stakeholders from across the emerging field of marine restoration. In the few years since so much potential for seascape scale restoration has developed, which this report helps to clearly define. The new government would do well to note its findings and the opportunities it presents.
Read the report by clicking the image below:
