North Devon Marine Pioneer

The North Devon Marine Pioneer is one of 4 pioneers that will be used to test innovative ideas for governance of the environment - to inform the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan. To do this we will be using the Natural Capital Approach – natural capital consists of the stocks of natural assets (geology, soil, air, water and living things), that provide benefit people.
 
The Biosphere's inclusion in two of the Defra Pioneers (Landscape and Marine) is testament to our effective partnership working and success in pushing forward projects to improve this area's environment and deliver the associated economic and social benefits.
 
What is the aim of the North Devon Marine Pioneer?
  • To explore how our marine natural capital can best be managed for the benefit of the environment, economy and people
  • To test how local interests (environmental, social, business) can play their part in managing, monitoring and communicating the benefits of a location’s marine area and related coastal and terrestrial zones.

 Why? The Marine Pioneer should reflect the government’s vision to "be the first generation to leave our environment in a better condition" and through works with the Marine Pioneer Steering Group and Biosphere's Marine Working Group a long term vision for the marine component of the Biosphere was developed. It is this that will drive the Marine Pioneer. 

Our partners:

Marine Management Organisation - Marine Pioneer web page

​Aisling's Blog - hear from the National Marine Pioneer Programme Manager

South West Partnership for Environmental and Economic prosperity (SWEEP) - will develop natural capital assessment tools and approaches to support the management of the Marine Pioneer area
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​WWF - UK SEAS - looking at North Devon's Marine Protected Areas with Natural England
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​Devon and Severn Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA) and Blue Marine Foundation are focusing on North Devon's fisheries
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What will we do?
  1. Test new tools and methods as part of applying a natural capital approach in practice
    What this means: how can guidance, models, databases and plans be used to support the enhancement of our marine Natural Capital, how effective are these tools and approaches and where and how can improvements be made?
  2. Demonstrate a joined-up, integrated approach to planning and delivery
    What this means: test new ways of governing the marine natural environment - how can partnership working, communication and collaboration with local people improve natural capital in a long term and sustainable way?
  3. Pioneer and ‘scale-up’ the use of new funding opportunities What this means: with a national reduction in public funding how can governance and research used to support the natural environment be funded? Where are the gaps and how can they be met?
  4. Grow our understanding of ‘what works’, sharing lessons and best practiceWhat this means: how can what will been done in the Marine Pioneer be replicated elsewhere – what are the barriers to growth of our natural resources and what are the successes? ​
 How will we do this?
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To test the approach we are developing a range of demonstration projects within the North Devon Marine Pioneer as well as benefiting from two major projects (SWEEP and WWF – UK SEAS) that are contributing to the North Devon Marine Pioneer. 

The Marine Pioneer is supported nationally by the Marine Management Organisation but delivered locally by the Marine Pioneer Steering Group. The Biosphere’s marine working group (which is one of 7 working groups) inform the Steering group and help to deliver the vision and define what is needed for North Devon’s marine environment. We will also work closely with the Landscape Pioneer to test delivery across the land -sea boundary and the Suffolk Marine Pioneer to share ideas and lessons between the two sites. 
Find out what we've done so far on our events page
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Figure 1 demonstrates how the Marine Pioneer will be delivered in North Devon
Where is it? 
 
The North Devon Marine Pioneer boundary (see map below) has been defined through work with the local fishing sector, where the boundary covers the Biosphere marine component and out to 20nm, dipping into Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA) waters, and up to the Special Area of Conservation (SAC) at Bridgewater Bay. This was identified as the extent of fishing activity for the inshore fleet that lands in North Devon ports.  It extends inland to 1km (to consider social and economic aspects) and up to the tidal limits in the Taw and Torridge rivers to join the boundary of the North Devon Landscape Pioneer. ​​
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Figure 2. The North Devon Marine Pioneer Boundary