Resilience and an ecosystems approach · Rivers Trust Taking an ecosystems approach often involves...

Ecosystems Knowledge Network

Ecosystems News Issue 8 • Summer 2014

Resilience and an ecosystems approach

Resilience and the Westcountry Rivers Trust

Resilience through people: Carse of Stirling

Will your project be delivering value in 2060?

In this Issue

Ecosystems News • Issue 8 • Summer 2014 • Page 1

●ContentsEcosystems Knowledge Network

ecosystemsknowledge.net

Contact

Bruce Howard, Network Co-ordinator Anita Sedgewick, Project Officer

Web: http://ecosystemsknowledge.net

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +44 (0) 333 240 6990

This newsletter has been designed for screen viewing and ebook readers. Ecosystems News is available in PDF and ebook formats. Use the navigation arrows alongside the contents page in the PDF to go to the relevant articles.

The views expressed in Ecosystems News are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily those of the Ecosystems Knowledge Network team. Ecosystems News welcomes new contributions but can assume no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations.

The Ecosystems Knowledge Network is funded by Defra and Scottish Government. It is being developed by an independent partnership involving the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Natural Capital Initiative, the University of Exeter (Centre for Rural Policy Research) and Countryscape.

The Network is a resource for anyone wanting to share knowledge or learn about the practical benefits of an ecosystems approach. The Network draws together experience from the UK and elsewhere to assist organisations to understand how an ecosystems approach can help us build sustainable communities. It provides the expertise and experience of a growing UK-wide active community.

Opportunities to get involved

There are lots of ways to participate in the Network, which is free to join.

The best starting point is http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/about/participate, where you will find links to:

● register as a Member and tell us what the Network can do for you;

● a form to propose an activity that is aligned with the aims of the Network (limited practical and financial assistance is available to support these activities); and

● contact us with details of a relevant project, tool or scheme that will be of interest to other members.

Cover photo: Engaging young people in the Carse of Stirling © Scottish Natural Heritage

http://ecosystemsknowledge.net


mailto:info%40ecosystemsknowledge.net?subject=

http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/about/participate




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Contents

Editorial: A richer view of resilience 3

Resilience from the perspective of the Westcountry Rivers Trust 4

Living as if we wanted to continue living here 7

Carse of Stirling: Delivering resilience by involving people 10

A partnership for resilience in Anglia 14

Wild Ennerdale: An evolving landscape, but is it more resilient? 17

Will your project be delivering value in 2060? 21

Involving local communities in the recognition of what nature does for people 24

News: Natural Capital Summit 26

News: UK National Ecosystem Assessment reports launched 26

News: Planning natural resilience 27

News: Ecosystem Approach Handbook published 27





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A richer view of resilienceBruce Howard, Ecosystems Knowledge Network Co-ordinator

If you were to ask people on the High Street what the word ‘resilience’ means, they might tell you it has something to do with standing up to things that are unforeseen, uncontrollable or undesired. They might add that it is about getting things back to normal afterwards. When applying the word resilience to our relationship with the natural environment, however, the meaning is much deeper. An ecosystems approach provides us with a richer view of resilience. This is because it causes people to think of people and nature as a system.

Events such as floods and summer heat episodes are likely to spring to mind when we talk of resilience. We think of nature as the cause and the solution to such events. Nevertheless, building resilience in the human-dominated landscapes of the UK is much more than a risk-reduction exercise. Resilience means having partnerships and projects on the ground (and at sea) that can help people manage their relationship with nature.

These projects, such as those found within our networks of Living Landscapes and Futurescapes, help to secure a broad range of benefits for people rather than lurching from one ‘environmental’ hazard crisis to another. Resilience is about having adaptable projects that can deliver on all aspects of an ecosystems approach. These schemes need to be resilient under change, whether this is variations in climate, financial circumstance or the natural turnover of people involved.

This issue of Ecosystems News illustrates what resilience means if we take an ecosystems approach. We learn what resilience means to some of our members who are responsible for land and marine areas around the UK. Leaders like Laurence Couldrick of the Westcountry Rivers Trust, an organisation that has been bringing partners together for twenty years (Page 4).

The Ecosystems Knowledge Network continues to develop activities to serve its members. In September, for example, we have an event entitled Planning for Resilience (see Page 27). Many activities put the spotlight on work of members such as the innovative partnership between New Anglia and Wild Anglia (see Page 14).

New knowledge about the state of nature abounds. The Synthesis Report for UK National Ecosystem Assessment Follow-on Project is an additional resource that has been published recently (see Page 26). What is needed more than ever before is active sharing of available know-how; applying what is known to people and places around the UK. You can play your part as a Network member by sharing activities you are involved in. Do get in touch with us at [email protected]

Bruce Howard, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology


mailto:info%40ecosystemsknowledge.net?subject=




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Viewpoint:

Resilience from the perspective of the Westcountry Rivers TrustTaking an ecosystems approach often involves working throughout large areas of land over which people have diverse needs and interests. Laurence Couldrick explains how the Westcountry Rivers Trust has spent the last twenty years building resilience among the people and landscapes of South West England.

We are placing multiple demands on our land. There is an ever increasing population but the same amount of usable space. Since the Second World War, we have increased food production through improvements in agriculture such as the use of nitrogenous fertilisers. We have also increased the amount of farmable space by removing hedges, wetlands and woodlands.

Along with the intended – and much needed – increases, these changes have led to the unintended loss of resilience in our landscapes. This includes, for example, a reduction in its ability to hold and move water.

The Westcountry Rivers Trust has sought to address this reduction in resilience by working with farmers and landowners to understand both the positive and negative impacts of farming. This is not about reverting to a bygone era, but about ensuring we get the most from our river catchments.

The Trust has run several catchment-scale projects that illustrate the relationship between the regulatory, cost-saving and incentivisation frameworks we have for building resilience in land management. We have worked with thousands of landowners across South West England to help them manage their resources more sustainably, while in the context of promoting a healthy business with the by-product of a healthy environment.

The Trust delivers an ecosystems approach through its ethos of ‘thinking globally but acting locally’. By working with academic, regulatory and community stakeholders to understand the effect of local management practices on the limits of the ecosystem, the Trust has been able to increase the resilience of river catchments. This includes, for example, helping farm businesses remain viable and reduce flood risk.

Making it personal

A key element to the success of this approach is to design advice that is personal, costed and relevant to each farmer. This way, they can change their management practices while minimising the risk to their business.

From 2002 to 2006, the Trust delivered the Cornwall Rivers Project, a £2.6 million initiative, funded by Defra and the Objective 1 Programme (aimed at reducing differences in social and economic conditions within the EU). This delivered improvements in economic competitiveness in Cornish businesses. Its primary aim was the rehabilitation of key rivers and their catchments across Cornwall while at the same time helping to make local rural communities more economically viable.

During the Project, Trust staff visited more than 870 landholdings in Cornwall. Each one received advice and a confidential, individually-tailored and free ‘Integrated River Basin Resource Management Plan’.





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These plans identified opportunities to improve farming practice, to protect the environment and to make economic savings. These plans covered more than 56,000 hectares of land (equivalent to the area of the Isle of Man) and more than 1,380 kilometres of surveyed watercourses.

An independent economic survey of the Cornwall Rivers Project revealed that the majority of respondents made significant savings through taking up our advice (an annual saving of more than £1,369 for each farm in 2006). If all 870 farms made such savings, the entire cost of the project paid for itself in just over two years! In farm businesses, resilience always has a financial dimension.

Enclosed farm land delivers a suite of benefits that we all value. By working with farmers and landowners we can understand how their

businesses can provide what we need as a society © Westcountry Rivers Trust

“In farm businesses, resilience always has a financial dimension.”

Brokering change

The Trust also ran the WATER Project, a €3.8 million partner initiative, funded by the EU’s Interreg IVA France (Channel) England programme. The project sought to assesses the landscape and understand how water moves through the catchment and where it is retained.

The WATER Project led to the protection of more than 35 kilometres of wetland zones, and to the Trust’s involvement in Payments for Ecosystem Services, through South West Water’s Upstream Thinking programme. The Trust acted as an ethical broker between South West Water and farmers upstream of drinking water abstraction points.





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To date, the Trust has distributed more than £2.6 million worth of grants against £4.5 million worth of capital projects that improve raw water quality. These improvements have led to a reduction in the soil, nutrients and pesticides reaching the water treatment works and ultimately reducing water bills in the long term. The WATER Project has also seen the first use of a Reverse Auction on the River Fowey to allocate funding to the most cost-effective solutions. (See reference at the end of this article for further details of the Auction.)

These example projects, along with the Trust’s other multi-million pound programmes and initiatives, have led to real improvements in resilience – both in terms of how rivers function, but also in terms of how people interact with them.

Resilience is about balance

The Catchment Based Approach, which embodies much of an ecosystems approach, is being rolled out across all catchments in England. It has huge potential to bring people together to decide what they want from their river catchment and the best and most sustainable way to use, manage and pay for their valuable local resources. The Trust firmly believes that the Catchment Based Approach represents the way we reach resilience. This means reaching an objective consensus over what needs to happen and joining up actions so they are delivered in the most effective way possible.

This contrasts with the historical situation in which we have thought only about what our individual organisation or sector wants. Tackling this is not easy. We have to think about how our actions impact upon other people and to put ourselves in other peoples’ positions. The reward for getting this right, however, is not just a more joined up way of delivering the multiple European directives that impact upon land. Resilience is about a balanced environment where we can feed ourselves, power our homes, drink clean water and have a nice safe place to work, live and play.

Laurence is Development and Policy Director at the Westcountry Rivers Trust. He is in charge of developing and running several multi-million pound projects on river catchment restoration. These include Payments for Ecosystem Service projects such as the Fowey Reverse Auction under the Upstream Thinking Programme and a Carbon Offsetting research project looking at long-term land use change.

Further information

● West Country Rivers Trust http://www.wrt.org.uk/

● Information on the Reverse Auction on the River Fowey is described via a link at http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/resources/programmes/pes-pilots


http://www.wrt.org.uk/

http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/resources/programmes/pes-pilots

http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/resources/programmes/pes-pilots




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Viewpoint:

Living as if we wanted to continue living hereEcosystems Knowledge Network Steering Group member Mark Everard reflects on what resilience is and how we might develop it. He focuses on how the UK National Ecosystem Assessment Follow-on project outputs, launched in June 2014, give us some important clues.

In my view, resilience is about living as if we wanted to continue living here. Stress and change are part of life and nature. We need to learn to manage it. Put this way, resilience is a goal that would be embraced in most council chambers, boardrooms, and around most kitchen tables. The devil, as ever, is in putting the idea into practice.

Over the last ten years, we have made great strides in recognising the breadth of services provided by the natural world. We are finding the means to value them in ways that mean the many, often formerly overlooked, ways in which nature supports our needs are not implicitly assumed to be zero.

At a global scale, the 2005 UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment painted a chilling picture of the decline of major habitat types and their prognosis for continuing human wellbeing. The UK National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA), published six years later, brought home to all of us that this decline is tangible right in our back gardens as well as in the back of beyond. It demonstrated that incorporating a more comprehensive valuation of nature into all areas of public policy is a pressing priority. This is no apocalyptic fiction; for graphic examples of how undermining nature’s supportive capacities has been a major contributor to the collapse of civilisations throughout human history, see Jared Diamond’s excellent 2006 book Collapse.

By depleting what is exploitable in nature – fisheries, soil fertility, forests and water resources – local communities and nations have made dramatic progress in population growth, general health and financial wealth. But, beneath the surface, historic disregard for nature has all too often manifested in the form of declining ecosystem functioning and resilience, increasing the exposure of both nature and people to the effects of stress and change.

Putting knowledge into action

The UK NEA Follow-on project set out to put into action what we now know about the status and trends of ecosystems, how they might change under different scenarios, and the response options available to us.

“ [the UK NEA] ...seeks to put into action what we now know about the status and trends of ecosystems.”





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Four main themes ran throughout the work of the UK NEA Follow-on project: economics; cultural perspectives; responses; and practical tools. These are all intimately related to the challenge of building resilience. The UK NEA, published in 2011, had begun the task of making tangible the many benefits provided to humanity by ecosystems but which are hard to get to grips with in ordinary decision-making situations.

The UK NEA has also developed knowledge to help bring into practice concepts that by their nature challenge established assumptions, economic drivers, vested interests, power balances and technical ‘solutions’ founded on the resource-exploiting model that has propelled developed world society throughout the past two centuries. No one said it would be easy; this is nothing short of culture change, innovating lifestyles that have long-term viability rather than short-term profit and comfort, with bills accruing in the short to longer-term future.

The forgotten supporting services

Our progress to date with trying to value the many services used by the Industrial Revolution model of progress has inevitably gained most traction for services closest to market. However, if we stop there, we will have opened our horizon a little, but will still continue to disregard what it is that underpins our livelihoods and future. It is the difficult-to-value services that matter most in ensuring that we build resilience. These include the many supporting services, the internal process by which nature maintains its integrity, productive capacity and ability to respond to disruptive and incrementally growing pressures.

Whenever I talk about supporting services, I draw the analogy with an iceberg. The visible piece represents the services of nature most readily exploited through trade, farming, harvesting, recreation and other uses. But these rest upon the 90% that lies beneath the surface. Resilience is a property primarily of this invisible 90%, so we had better make more rapid progress learning how to ascribe value – economic or otherwise – to this invisible majority if we are not to continue to undermine the system that supports us now and into the future.

“Resilience is a property primarily of this invisible 90%”

Changing culture

Culture change is never easy, even if it is now essential for rebuilding resilience in the way we look after land, water and the air we breathe. The work under the UK NEA Follow-on project, on the values people share, highlights that ‘nature’, however loosely defined, matters to people. The values we hold collectively, for example about places and the way they support the people we share them with, are often quite different in quality to the utilitarian responses we might give individually when responding to a questionnaire. We now know in theory that societal values are broader and richer than is reflected





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by the simple aggregation of individually expressed values. Translating into operational reality those deeper-held values – about nature itself, about each other and about the future – is where we need to be headed if we want to live as if we wanted to continue living here.

Ecosystems Knowledge Network members are at the forefront of showing what resilience means around the UK, and in bringing about the much-needed culture change. And, spanning as we do skills and perspectives from the conceptual to the practical, we are excellently placed to broker the kind of societal transformation that is such an urgent priority at this moment in history.

Mark Everard is Associate Professor of Ecosystem Services at the University of the West of England. Mark’s involvement in ecosystem services dates back to the late 1980s, spanning international development, the academic and NGO sectors, policy advice in Europe, India and Africa, consultancy to business, and frequent contributions to popular written and broadcast media.





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Project Profile: Carse of Stirling

Delivering resilience by involving peopleOne critical factor in developing resilient projects is to get the buy-in of the local community. This is not always straightforward though. Zoe Kemp explains how a new approach in Stirlingshire has helped to join up a range of interests and priorities.

Carse of Stirling project – Stakeholder Panel meeting © Nick James, Land Use Consultants

Scottish Natural Heritage, working with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, undertook the Carse of Stirling Project to explore a practical application of the ecosystems approach to land use and management, with a focus on engaging local stakeholders. The work took place between 2012 and 2013.

The aim was to identify priority actions to deliver improved benefits from nature in a way that integrates public policy objectives and local perspectives and through this to demonstrate the benefits of applying an ecosystems approach to land use, in a practical and realistic way. The Project worked with those who manage, enjoy and otherwise benefit from the environment, in a defined area of Stirlingshire.

Policy objectives for land use were considered alongside stakeholder preferences to develop a range of future scenarios, including farming and wildlife, flooding and sustainable communities. A vision for the Carse of Stirling was defined and existing mechanisms for delivery were reviewed.





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The Project was novel because it tried to engage those with an interest in land, without starting from a particular problem or with a specific end point in mind. An action plan was produced with local stakeholders. An evaluation report (see link at the end of this article) describes the Project process and issues that this raised.

Engaging stakeholders

A Stakeholder Panel was set up with 35 local people; including land managers, residents and those with interests in business and recreational activities. It brought together a range of views and needs that were sometimes in conflict. Initial tensions emerged between land managers and local communities, even though many members represented more than one local interest.

A series of five facilitated meetings at six week intervals focused on the following:

● introduction and identification of benefits provided by land in the study area;

● mapping the provision of benefits;

● past, present and future change;

● scenarios for the future; and

● developing a vision and actions.

Public policy objectives were built into all stages of the Project. Future drivers for change included both policy direction and environmental and societal change, and were reflected in the development of scenarios. Local policy delivery staff were involved in the scenarios workshop, including the officers from Stirling Council responsible for flood risk management and biodiversity. They provided advice and guidance to the Project team. A review of the final action plan considered how it fitted with existing public policy.

Communication techniques were designed to increase Panel members’ understanding and skills in discussing the benefits arising from nature. These techniques enabled the Panel members to explore tensions and trade-offs between benefits from land and the needs of both providers and beneficiaries of benefits in a way that diffused rather than exacerbated tensions.

By working through the sessions, Panel members identified shared values and agreed a common vision. This had the effect of starting to break down suspicions and tensions between different sectors of the community. The use of independent consultants to facilitate discussions helped create the right environment for stakeholders to explore different perspectives.

“ By working through the sessions, Panel members identified shared values and agreed a common vision...”





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The local community were more familiar with an ‘inform and consult’ approach from public agencies, rather than an approach which invited them to define their own vision (although several communities had developed Community Action Plans). The Project area had previously been subject to proposals for flood management to which many local people were hostile. There was suspicion that this work had a similar ambition.

This more proactive approach of engagement and involvement can therefore be quite challenging. It is important to be open about the purpose of a project from the start, to avoid misconceptions and mistrust. It is also important not to underestimate the level of suspicion of public agencies among rural communities. Key people, such as the farming community, need to be briefed in advance in order to secure their support.

The approach was ultimately successful, but was uncomfortable for the project team at the outset in addressing suspicions about the Project’s purpose. All of the work took place within one year. It would have benefited from a longer time period to develop the initial project and relationships with stakeholders.

“ The approach was ultimately successful, but was uncomfortable for the project team at the outset in addressing suspicions about the Project’s purpose.”

For agencies with a specific remit, like natural heritage or environmental quality, working with communities without a specific question or problem to address can feel risky, as the community’s priorities may not align with public policy or an agency’s priorities. In reality, this problem did not emerge, as the joint learning and development of a shared vision allowed panel members to explore all aspects of their environment and a wide range of benefits from nature.

Sustaining the benefits

A draft vision and action plan was prepared drawing on the scenario work, and was presented to the Panel at the final meeting. The Panel is now taking the action plan forward. It includes a wide range of actions for the local community, including activities to increase biodiversity and pollination, address flooding and flood management issues together, increase local sustainable economic activity and improve promotion and awareness of the area’s assets.

A final report reviewed the project and outlined lessons learned for similar projects. It showed that people understand the concept of benefits from nature, the need to make the most of natural assets and the tensions and trade-offs that this involves. For a project to engage people, everyone has to feel that they will benefit and, for land managers in particular, that they will remain in control of the way they manage their land. The geographic and social distribution of who might win or lose from decisions using an ecosystems approach needs to be considered. It also illustrated that provision of benefits to





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others is likely to be driven by incentives or compensation for accepting ‘dis-benefits’ (such as flooding or the loss of productive land to habitat networks or walking and cycling networks).

“ For a project to engage people, everyone has to feel that they will benefit and, for land managers in particular, that they will remain in control of the way they manage their land.”

The Project report adds to the small but growing body of evidence on the benefits and practicalities of implementing an ecosystems approach. The proof of the approach will be in delivery of the Action Plan, leading to an improved environment that sustains greater benefits.

Zoe is interested in the ways in which the places where people live, work and play enable them to reach their potential. She is currently on secondment to Scottish Government, leading the Land Use Strategy and Biodiversity Team. She then expects to return to her role as Operations Manager at Scottish Natural Heritage.

A report on the findings of the project is available at http://www.snh.gov.uk/publications-data-and-research/publications/search-the-catalogue/publication-detail/?id=2113

A link to the Vision and Action Plan is available at http://www.stirling.gov.uk/services/community-life-and-leisure/your-community/community-information/stirling-carse


http://www.snh.gov.uk/publications-data-and-research/publications/search-the-catalogue/publication-detail/?id=2113

http://www.snh.gov.uk/publications-data-and-research/publications/search-the-catalogue/publication-detail/?id=2113

http://www.stirling.gov.uk/services/community-life-and-leisure/your-community/community-information/stirling-carse

http://www.stirling.gov.uk/services/community-life-and-leisure/your-community/community-information/stirling-carse




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Project Profile:

A partnership for resilience in AngliaNorfolk and Suffolk are two of the most climate-challenged counties in the UK. An innovative partnership is helping those with interests in local nature and local economic growth to address this challenge together. Iain Dunnett, Stakeholder Manager for the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, explains more.

Conservation ponds at Kelling Heath © Blue Sky Leisure

All the climate predictions suggest that resilience is going to be critical in the next 50 to 100 years. In the East of England we are facing potential changes to the coastline and water shortages. In order to manage this, we are going to have to continue to innovate and develop new technology locally. We are off to a good start with this because in our patch we have places such as the John Innes Centre (developing crop resilience), the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (with expertise in coastal processes) and the University of East Anglia (with world class environmental science and environmental economics capabilities).

At the heart of all of this is getting the environmental and economic communities to team up. Colleagues from New Anglia, the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), and Wild Anglia Community Interest Company, the Local Nature Partnership (LNP), are designing programmes to align the two agendas. We are identifying how the natural landscape, tourism, renewable energy and low carbon sit together.

“ At the heart of all of this is getting the environmental and economic communities to team up.”





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Members of the LNP and LEP have been working together from the beginning. New Anglia was set up in 2011 and shortly afterwards became a Green Economy Pathfinder, focussing on energy, low carbon and natural capital. This led to a Green Economy manifesto, which developed the proposal for the LNP. The LNP was launched in October 2013 where the link-up between environmental and economic interests was made clear.

The relationship continues to develop at various levels. There is lots of contact between the staff involved in delivering the LNP and LEP. There has been a commitment from the very top of the LEP board to engage in environment-related issues.

Enjoying the view in Pin Mill, near Ipswich © Haidee Bishop

A cultural shift

Despite lots of progress, there are still challenges to overcome. There is still a view among some on the economic side that the natural environment hampers economic development. This is particularly the case when issues such as planning or protected species are considered. In the LEP, we are trying to reverse that approach and explain that all agencies want a vibrant economy. On the environmental side, there is still some resistance to the idea of development or growth.

It takes time to overcome these old-style cultural differences. We are asking people to take a real cultural shift. The challenge is to get everyone seeing that there are opportunities to link up between the economy and natural capital, and recognising it’s a strong part of the offer. In order to do this, we are making funding from the LEP and other organisations available to business across areas of development, such as energy, low carbon and tourism. There is a particular focus on the holiday cottage industry; biodiversity protection and ecoholidays go hand in hand.





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It’s critical to get senior people together as soon as possible to get buy-in on both sides, and ensure they work together. If that buy in is not there from the beginning, it’s very difficult. For projects that are taking this approach further down the line, it’s important that both sides leave their baggage at the door and go in with open minds. The environmental side needs to talk business value, not capital, and realise that this doesn’t denigrate the environment. The economic side needs to realise that the natural environment is growth-ready and part of growth potential.

Next steps

We are currently in the process of identifying funding programmes that are important to LNP objectives, and trying to marry our economic activities with the LNP, to give Wild Anglia a lead role. One potential area is flooding, where the environmental, economic and social impacts can be easily identified. Wild Anglia is the only organisation that brings together all environmental interests across Norfolk and Suffolk. On the LEP side, we’ll be writing strategies and putting a value on the environment in terms of the economy, health and wellbeing.

We have been trialling the Local Environment and Economic Development (LEED) toolkit, looking specifically at flooding. This has helped to develop decision-making processes about funding and investments. We are not in a position yet to say that our decisions are fully sustainable. There will be a need to bring in LEED again at a suitable time to ensure sustainability in our ongoing work.

Iain has a background in economic development, environmental background and sustainable development. He was an environmental manager for 16 years, and has worked with Wildlife Trusts and local authorities. Iain then moved into the field of environmental and European funding.

Further information

On 15th July, 2014, the Ecosytems Knowledge Network held a webinar with Wild Anglia, New Anglia and Natural England, to discuss the issues raised in this article. To listen to the webinar, go to http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/about/events/past

Local Environment and Economic Development (LEED) toolkit: http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/planningdevelopment/LEP-citydeals/leedtoolkit.aspx

Further links to tools and resources on linking local nature and local growth:

http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/local-economy

New Anglia LEP http://www.newanglia.co.uk

Wild Anglia CIC http://www.wildanglia.org


http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/about/events/past

http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/about/events/past

http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/planningdevelopment/LEP-citydeals/leedtoolkit.aspx

http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/planningdevelopment/LEP-citydeals/leedtoolkit.aspx

http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/local-economy

http://www.newanglia.co.uk

http://www.wildanglia.org




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Project Profile:

Wild Enerdale: An evolving landscape, but is it more resilient?The Wild Ennerdale Partnership began more than a decade ago. It has the aim of ensuring greater reliance on natural processes to shape the landscape and ecology of Cumbria’s Ennerdale Valley for the benefit of people. Project Officer Rachel Oakley looks at whether allowing nature more freedom to shape the look, feel and function of the valley, is helping to make the landscape more resilient.

Recent tree planting in Ennerdale © Gareth Browning, Wild Ennerdale

Ennerdale is one of the quieter Lakeland valleys, situated on the western fringe of the Lake District National Park. It is only a few miles from the urban coastal area of West Cumbria, but it offers a peaceful experience and closeness to nature which is hard to match elsewhere in the Lakes. Its spectacular combination of lake, mountains, rivers and forest, together with restricted vehicle access and no main road, complement the attributes of a wild valley.

The Wild Ennerdale Partnership brings together the three main landowners in the valley: the Forestry Commission, National Trust and United Utilities (the water company), along with funding and advisory support from Natural England. The Partnership is itself resilient because of the way it shares resources and expertise to manage the 4,700 hectares of land.

“ The Partnership is itself resilient because of the way it shares resources and expertise to manage the 4,700 hectares of land.”





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A number of changes have already been made to the landscape. Large blocks of mature spruce trees, which once dominated the forest, have been removed to create space for broadleaved woodland to develop through planting, seed scattering and natural regeneration. This softens the landscape by starting to blur the boundaries between forest, farmland and open fell.

A more challenging shift has been to move from a dominance of sheep grazing, to a mix of cattle and sheep. More than half the valley catchment is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest or Special Area of Conservation. There has been extensive overgrazing by sheep over a prolonged period. We have worked with the farmers to move from sheep to native Galloway cattle. Grazing pressure has been reduced, new habitats are emerging and traditional farmland and forest are becoming more integrated.

The River Liza begins at the head of the valley and flows freely for 8 kilometres before joining the lake known as Ennerdale Water. The river has the space to shift, meander and change course, evening out flow in times of flood. It catches debris that acts as a natural filter before the water flows into Ennerdale Water (serving 80,000 people across West Cumbria). The river is also important for salmon, trout and char populations. It serves as a lifeline for the internationally important freshwater mussel population at the western end of the valley.

The River Liza © Gareth Browning, Wild Ennerdale





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Visiting the Ennerdale Valley © Gareth Browning, Wild Ennerdale

Key to all this is the local community, ensuring a sense of influence, ownership and understanding of how the valley functions. The name ‘Wild Ennerdale’ came from feedback from people on what made the valley special for them. This has been an ongoing dialogue for years, where we are building on the positives and addressing the negatives. It’s a delicate balance between conservation and access, but done sensitively the two can complement rather than conflict.

When we started, we hadn’t intended to create a brand, but Wild Ennerdale has become established and is benefitting local people. The local brewery has a Wild Ennerdale beer, and accommodation providers use the wild branding to attract visitors. The community has secured funding to develop a community hub, with information about Ennerdale as a key resource for visitors. Farmers have had new business opportunities as areas of forest have been opened up for grazing by cattle.

If we think back to how we managed the valley before Wild Ennderdale, the answer to the question about whether resilience has been achieved is yes.

“ ...the answer to the question about whether resilience has been achieved is yes.”





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There has been much publicity recently on how we manage the land in relation to water retention and flooding, and we repeatedly hear about the vast amounts of money being spent on flood defence.

By watching the landscape in Ennerdale slowly change, it would be hard to dispute the point that a more varied mosaic of vegetation in the uplands makes it more resilient to extremes of weather. Vegetation acts as a sponge and filter, and helps to stabilise the ground. The water quality here is some of the best in the country. In 2009, when Cumbria made the headlines with devastating flooding not too far from Ennerdale, the impact in the valley was negligible. The Liza had done its job, absorbing and dissipating the impact of huge rainfall, simply by having the freedom to do so.

It is not just about water though. It is about the whole package of what nature does for people. By working at the catchment scale and by approaching practical management beyond ownership boundaries, a resilient landscape becomes more feasible. Working alongside natural processes means that we can be more opportunistic and are able to adapt to changing circumstances.

“ By working at the catchment scale and by approaching practical management beyond ownership boundaries, a resilient landscape becomes more feasible.”

We must, however, remain realistic and continue to develop our understanding about how ecological processes respond to change. Currently, we are dealing with Phytopthora ramorum, a fungal-like pathogen that can kill a wide range of trees and plants, and which is affecting many larch trees. We are having to destroy 110 hectares of larch trees which was not part of our vision, but it forces us to think about how new opportunities may arise for native woodland to regenerate naturally, as well as planting in areas which would have otherwise remained as larch.

The future for Wild Ennerdale looks positive. As interest grows in catchment management and how nature functions, the Partnership will continue to be a focus for practical delivery. We do not advocate that every valley in the Lake District of England becomes another Ennerdale. Each is unique in its character and function. We do, however, aim to share experiences of how a landscape-scale approach, with more freedom for nature, can bring a wealth of benefits, and indeed, more resilience.

Rachel has worked on the Wild Ennerdale Partnership project since it began. Her roles include co-ordinating the partnership, sharing experiences with a range of audiences and being a contact within the local community. Prior to Wild Ennerdale, Rachel lived in the heart of the Ennerdale valley working for the Youth Hostel Association. Her roots are in this part of England.





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Viewpoint:

Will your project be delivering value in 2060?As we move away from an approach to nature conservation dominated by land purchase and protected areas, the question of long-term sustainability and resilience of projects arises. The RSPB’s Aidan Lonergan explains how Futurescapes, his organisation’s programme of landscape-scale conservation, is meeting the challenge of ensuring long-term impact.

Suffolk Coast Bike Ride (Suffolk Coast Futurescape) © Eleanor Bentall (rspb-images.com)

Landscape-scale conservation projects are the way forward for ensuring resilience and delivering long-term benefits. For the RSPB this activity lies in the middle of a spectrum between:

● traditional site-based or protected area approaches; and

● the re-wilding agenda (the return of habitats to their natural state).

In this new and developing centre ground, we use a whole landscape perspective to identify a suite of possible conservation projects. Futurescape projects throughout the UK are implementing this. They include the Morecambe Bay and Greater Thames in England; Inner Forth in Scotland; Gwent Levels in South Wales and the Lough Neagh Basin in Northern Ireland.

Many of our potential projects at this scale involve private landowners. To ensure long-term impact, we need to build relationships with landowners, seeking to understand the current economics of their land management approaches and beginning the process of identifying the most effective approaches to bring about the conservation improvements needed. These range from the application of regulations, the connection with policy tools such as agri-environment schemes and Water Framework Directive compliance, and long-term planning around end use, such as with the minerals industry. In some cases, we can benefit from the altruistic wishes of private landowners.





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“ To ensure long-term impact, our projects need to build relationships with landowners, seeking to understand the current economics of their land management approaches.”

The approach to delivering projects for long-term benefit varies, depending on whether the conversation activities are with public bodies, private companies or individuals. Throughout, the third sector organisations that lead the work need much more than just top-class project management skills. They need finely-tuned softer skills to achieve influence and advocacy. Business modelling for alternative land uses is also a vital activity.

With traditional funding sources for conservation decreasing and becoming more competitive, it is vital that the third sector investigates on a precautionary basis novel funding mechanisms that are now becoming available.

We are now in an era of small government (especially in England) coupled with a suite of increasing environmental pressures. The most significant of these is climate change. It is vital, therefore, that the third sector steps up and plans its work with a long-term (multi-decade) perspective. Increased collaboration between third sector organisations is essential in achieving this. These organisations must not use competing business models as an excuse not to act decisively together. The RSPB has been managing its own estate with climate change adaptation in mind for many years. This includes deploying our climate change adaptation assessment tool kit, which we use to help plan our work in each of our Futurescape projects.

“ ...it is vital, therefore, that the third sector steps up and plans its work with a long-term (multi-decade) perspective.”

No doubt, the pressures of built development on land will continue to increase. This is why we continue to put much resource into casework, in particular around areas protected because of their international nature conservation status. Such work will benefit the whole protected area network through case law in the future. Our annual business planning cycle includes a horizon scanning function that enables us to spot the emerging issues and pressures and to plan accordingly.

Stakeholder buy-in is crucial to delivering long-term projects that are focused on nature conservation. To achieve this, we have developed ways of making the case for nature that go beyond the well-used ‘moral imperatives’ and ‘existence value’. To engage stakeholders we also need to highlight the value of





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our natural capital and ecosystems services to individuals, businesses and society. This line of argument is reflected in the work of initiatives such as the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (see Page 26). While never forgetting the intrinsic value of what we are trying to conserve, it is useful to be able to describe in more economic terms the values of goods and services provided for ‘free’ by nature. Pollination is a prime example.

“ While never forgetting the intrinsic value of what we are trying to conserve, it is useful to be able to describe in more economic terms the values of goods and services provided for ‘free’ by nature.”

Our long-term landscape-scale conservation model has protected areas at its heart, including Natura 2000 sites and national designations. With about 12% of the UK land area in this category, it is vital that we get all these sites into favourable condition. From there we will, in collaboration with others, develop a series of projects that will have a positive aggregate impact over time on the ecological performance of particular landscapes.

Individual projects and their impacts may wax and wane depending on available public policy support. As a result, we must plan for the potentially transient and sometimes relatively shorter-term effects of these projects. Our long-term view is that there must be a move towards a real coherence and integration on all aspects of public policy affecting land use particularly in the face of climate change (regardless of which government department ‘owns’ them).

Land use patterns that produce multiple public goods and services and that make a genuine contribution to the resilience of our natural capital will be the ones that should receive continued support through public money. While we collectively work towards that goal, we will need to find increasingly creative ways to provide more long-term homes for nature across the UK.

Resilience: will your project still be delivering value in 2060?

Aidan Lonergan is Programme Manager for Futurescapes. His work is centred on developing a programme of landscape-scale conservation with RSPB colleagues across the UK. Aidan has worked for the RSPB for 15 years both in the UK and internationally. He is originally from Tipperary in the Republic of Ireland.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/futurescapes


https://www.rspb.org.uk/futurescapes




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Event report:

Involving local communities in the recognition of what nature does for peopleOn 5th June 2014, the Ecosystems Knowledge Network organised a field trip in partnership with the Lewes and Ouse Valley eco-nomics group (L&OVe) to explore ways of engaging communities in recognising the value of ecosystem services.

Participants in a Naturegain walk on 5th June © Anita Sedgewick, Ecosystems Knowledge Network

L&OVe has been developing a number of tools to engage local people in recognising the value of nature, in order to improve people’s wellbeing and to develop resilience in the local economy. The event gave participants the chance to gain a deeper understanding of these tools, and others, that are being developed, to help them implement community engagement exercises with their own organisations.

In the morning, three presentations covered community engagement approaches developed by L&OVe, the Holnicote Multi-Objective Flood Demonstration Project, and the Talking About Our Place toolkit developed by Countryscape and Scottish Natural Heritage. In the afternoon, each project ran an interactive workshop where participants had the chance to test out the tools and consider how they might be used in their own field of work.





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Participants also took part in a Naturegain walk. This is an interactive walk, developed by L&OVe, where people are encouraged to recognise and understand the benefits that they derive from the natural environment.

Example learning points:

● People often identify cultural ecosystem services first and things that are personal to them, rather than other services that they can’t see.

● It can be helpful to let people draw on maps as this gives them something to relate to.

● Engaging people helps to give them ownership of a place, but it is important not to raise expectations unrealistically about what they can achieve.

● It is important to use language that is relevant to people, and not to use jargon.

● When organising meetings that seek to involve communities, facilitation is important. It means that the ‘experts’ aren’t the ones providing all the answers.

A full report and presentations from the day are available on the Ecosystems Knowledge Network website at http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/lewes


http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/lewes




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News:

Natural Capital SummitNatural capital refers to all the ways that the features found in nature work together to provide value. It is about the stocks that lead to ‘ecosystem service’ flows. HM Government has appointed a Natural Capital Committee to take stock of natural capital in England. Scotland has both a Natural Capital Index and a Natural Capital Forum. The first World Forum on Natural Capital was organised by Scottish Wildlife Trust last year.

The Natural Capital Initiative, a partnership between four science-based organisations, will be holding a summit on natural capital in London on 6th and 7th November 2014. The event, entitled Valuing our Life Support Systems, aims to take stock of the gains made so far in valuing natural capital in planning and decision-making, and to discuss how this can be developed further. To find out more and to register for a place, visit www.naturalcapitalinitiative.org.uk

UK National Ecosystem Assessment reports launchedOn 26th June, the reports of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment Follow-on project were launched. This work further develops and communicates the work of the original Assessment published in 2011; a pioneering analysis of the UK natural environment in terms of the benefits it provides to society and for continuing prosperity. It brings to the fore many aspects of an ecosystems approach; valuing nature, involving people and understanding how nature works.

Lisa Schneidau, Manager of the North Devon Nature Improvement Area, shows the experiences of her initiative. © Ecosystems Knowledge

Network

The launch event was hosted by the Living with Environmental Change Programme. The Ecosystems Knowledge Network assisted LWEC by organising an afternoon session on practical responses to the National Ecosystem Assessment. The session featured six activities around the UK that demonstrate what an ecosystems approach means in practice. It also included a discussion on how an ecosystems approach can be applied in different sectors.





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The 98-page synthesis report captures the key messages of the Follow-on project. Network members will find Part III of this document particularly helpful because it sums up in straightforward language what the UK National Ecosystems Assessment means for different groups of people. The groups include the general public, local authorities and business.

For details of the launch event and links to UK National Ecosystem Assessment Reports see http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/about/events/nea2014

See Page 7 for an article by Mark Everard, one of the authors of the UK NEA Follow-on Synthesis.

Planning natural resilienceBoth urban and rural communities need landscapes that are resilient to the extremes of weather caused by a changing climate. Planning regimes throughout the UK are crucial to achieving this. The Ecosystems Knowledge Network is organising a workshop in Manchester on 18th September 2014 to identify opportunities to plan for natural resilience in the landscape.

The event is being organised in partnership with Manchester: A Certain Future, a group of organisations developing a climate change plan for the City. It will examine how the challenges of both providing climate resilience, and enhancing the natural and local environment, can be addressed together rather than as separate areas of activity. The day will include presentations and opportunities for discussions with planners, developers and researchers. It will consider different stages of planning and development from strategic plan making, to area masterplanning and site plans.

More information about the event will be available at http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/about/events/future

Ecosystem Approach Handbook publishedThe Ecosystem Approach Handbook has been developed by Natural England and Countryscape to help landscape scale partnerships benefit from the ecosystem approach.

The handbook has been designed for a wide range of partnerships, and can be used in its entirety or as a reference guide. It builds on partnership projects that Natural England has supported in Bassenthwaite and the South Pennines, and it includes resources and case studies shared by members of the Ecosystems Knowledge Network. The handbook is available for download at: ecosystemsknowledge.net/handbook


http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/about/events/nea2014

http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/about/events/nea2014

http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/about/events/future

http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/about/events/future

http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/handbook

http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/handbook

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