Exploring the Value of Marine Restoration: Insights from ‘Sea the Value’
,
At the Marine Natural Capital Navigators Spring Meeting, we were pleased to host Tavis Potts (University of Aberdeen) and Daryl Burdon (Daryl Burdon Ltd) for a presentation on the Supporting Coastal Communities ‘Sea the Value’ of Marine Restoration Initiative. This project has been running for the last two years and focuses on helping coastal communities recognise the benefits of marine restoration by linking marine biodiversity, natural capital, and ecosystem services.
Project aims
The Sea the Value project is structured around three key objectives:
- Quantify the interlinkages between marine biodiversity, natural capital and ecosystem services taking quantity and quality into consideration
- Determine the economic and social values associated with the benefits of carbon sequestration and bioremediation of waste and apply these values to support natural capital accounting and community benefits
- Connect the ecological, economic and social values of biodiversity to decision-making, through co-design and supporting of green investment to enhance biodiversity
Using participatory mapping, the team has worked with stakeholders in Cromarty (Scotland) and the Solent (England) to assess how natural features support communities. The project produced feature-benefit matrices to highlight how sites provide ecosystem benefits and inform natural capital accounting and decision-making.
Project methodology
The project’s Participatory Mapping approach engages stakeholders at every stage, using a three-workshop model:
- First workshop: Identifies natural and modified features in the seascape and landscape.
- Second workshop: Explores trade-offs and scenarios about the benefits provided by these features.
- Third workshop: Focuses on stakeholders (beneficiaries) and how they relate to natural capital processes.
Participatory Mapping outputs
- The project develops feature-benefit matrices, mapping out how natural features (e.g., beaches, seagrasses) provide a range of benefits such as recreation, tourism, carbon sequestration, and erosion control. These matrices offer insights as to how features of a specific site deliver a range of benefits.
- The data can be used to explore how different groups rely on these benefits, examining how stakeholders (e.g., boat club or coastal partnership) depend on natural capital features for livelihood, regulation, and recreation.
- The data can be used to evaluate different scenarios, such as managed realignment and oyster restoration, through participatory dialogue to understand how changes in features like saltmarsh extent impact associated benefits like carbon sequestration and bioremediation.
- Participatory workshops and mapping processes helped clarify how the local environment responds to interventions, with overall positive changes noted in scenarios such as managed realignment.
Watch the presentation & access resources
The session provided valuable case studies, tools, and findings relevant to marine restoration and investment in nature recovery. You can watch the full presentation here:
For further insights, download the Sea the Value training materials:
Want to be part of these conversations? Stay engaged with the Marine Natural Capital Navigators by joining our Basecamp network: https://lnkd.in/eqw3G2WW