An Environment Agency-led award-winning coastal habitat creation and flood alleviation scheme on the West Sussex coast has successfully piloted a new global standard for nature-based solutions established by the world-leading authority on conservation of nature.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) developed the Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions for use by governments, businesses, investors, communities and NGOs to ensure that nature-based solutions reach their potential to address societal challenges, such as climate change and biodiversity loss.

The Global Standard will raise awareness of the benefit of nature-based solutions around the world and provide assurance for future investment in such schemes, including from the private sector, such as through carbon credits and biodiversity net gain.

Scientists estimate that nature-based solutions could provide approximately one third of the climate change mitigation needed by 2030 to stabilise warming to below 2°C.

IUCN worked with the Environment Agency to pilot the Global Standard using the Medmerry managed realignment project on the West Sussex coast.

At the time of completion, the £28m Medmerry project was the largest open-coast scheme in Europe and is one of the most sustainable projects the Environment Agency has ever delivered and subject of universal acclaim.

The project, delivered with the support of the RSPB and local communities, involved the construction of four miles of new sea defences to reduce the flood risk to hundreds of properties and created a new wetland for wildlife to flourish.

Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the Environment Agency, said:

Nature-based Solutions are an essential tool in managing climate change. We are delighted to have piloted the Global Standard through our work with RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts. It will identify nature-based solutions that are well governed and delivering benefits for nature and society. This will provide assurance to investors, developers and communities about how projects are being delivered on the ground.

With the UK hosting COP26, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s new Standard sends an important message to State and non-State actors about the importance of investing in nature to deliver climate ambitions.

Through an EA-led process, Natural England, RSPB and multiple Wildlife Trusts also worked with IUCN to pilot the Global Standard with four other projects in England:

• Haweswater in the Lake District, United Utilities land farmed and managed by the RSPB;
• Centenary Riverside in Rotherham, a flood alleviation scheme and wetland reserve in Rotherham managed by Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust;
• Great Fen, a habitat restoration project in Cambridgeshire managed by The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire; and,
• Sussex Kelp Restoration Project managed by the Sussex Wildlife Trust, which has incorporated nature-based solutions into its project design.

Stewart Maginnis, IUCN Deputy Director General, said:

The IUCN Global Standard enables the widespread application of nature-based solutions by providing a single accountability framework applicable to all sectors and stakeholders.

The Global Standard assures the quality and credibility of Nature-based Solutions as effective interventions that provide benefits to both human well-being and biodiversity.

Much of the Medmerry site is now managed by the RSPB as a nature reserve, and has become a wildlife haven with nesting sites among the pools supporting rare birds such as avocets, black-headed gulls, little ringed plovers and oystercatchers.

Adrian Thomas, Medmerry project manager for the RSPB, said:

Nature-based solutions are essential to our efforts to tackle the nature and climate emergency and unlock the power of our natural world to both provide homes for the threatened wildlife we love but also tackle the climate crisis.

Throughout the creation of Medmerry, we looked constantly for win-wins. Here, local communities now get vastly improved flood protection, extensive new access, additional habitat for fish stocks and new saltmarshes for farmland grazing, while threatened wildlife gets a real boost. It is this multi-benefit approach that makes Medmerry such a role model.

Built in Scotland, the ship has sailed from the UK to the waters of the Gulf of Guinea, visiting Ghana as well as Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia and Cape Verde for security patrols and a mission to support the UK’s allies in West Africa.

Royal Marines from 42 Commando are on board. This specialist unit will train military personnel from partner countries including Ghana. 42 Commando are experts in boarding operations, helping to end illegal maritime activity like piracy, drugs-smuggling and terrorism. The training they will deliver to Ghana’s Armed Forces will include boarding and searching of suspicious vessels, as well as evidence handling and medical skills.

British High Commissioner, Harriet Thompson said:

HMS Trent’s deployment to Ghana shows the UK-Ghana security partnership in action: a mutually beneficial partnership built on the sharing of expertise, intelligence and training.

The arrival of HMS Trent strengthens our shared commitment to ensure that Ghana continues to be recognised as a world-renowned peacekeeper strengthened through the skills and experience of the British Armed Forces.

During her visit, the ship will also host an Ocean Dialogue event. This will enable the UK, Ghana and international partners to reflect on managing the risks to Ghana’s ocean environment from over fishing and pollution, and look at how commitments and initiatives such as those emerging from COP26 can help to tackle them.

HMS Trent’s Commanding Officer, Commander Thomas Knott said:

Trent is conducting her first Maritime Security deployment to West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea and the regional knowledge of my Sailors and Commandos is rapidly improving.

Our visit to Ghana is essential in strengthening our partnership with the Ghanaian Navy so that we’re always ready to respond together, from piracy interdiction operations to lifesaving assistance at sea.

HMS Trent is one of 5 Royal Navy patrol ships currently operating around the world in areas of critical importance to the UK – from the Indo-Pacific, South Atlantic to the Mediterranean and Caribbean.

This is part of the Royal Navy’s Forward Presence programme that seeks to position patrol ships around the globe ready to respond to global events.

Dounreay was a former nuclear research centre for 50 years, and now wishes to trial innovative ideas as it decommissions, by challenging conventional methods and bringing in ideas from other industries. Key to this is to create a culture on the site that encourages innovation.

The pilot workshop, which was run by the university in the Weigh Inn in Thurso, mixed theory and practice together in 2 sessions, which culminated in the participants in teams solving a decommissioning problem and presenting their solutions to a panel of judges. Emma, Helena, Alan and Sergio were awarded a prize for the most enterprising and innovative solution.

DSRL Managing Director, Mark Rouse, opened the workshop with an introductory speech and said:

It is so inspiring to see our future talent being challenged to think outside the box and responding so positively. A great session and a new start for an aspect of our business that will be so important for our site and the NDA group.

Emma said:

The key learning that I took away from the workshop is that innovation can be straightforward and simple, it doesn’t always need to be complex. I am excited to be able to take my new experiences and knowledge from the workshop and include it in my work.

Alan added:

I found it good that there were different types of thinkers and how we viewed things in different ways.

Allane Hay, Deputy Head of Academic Partnerships at Moray College UHI who led the development of the design-led innovation programme along with colleagues from Inverness College UHI and North Highland College UHI, said:

Working with Dounreay and the NDA on this innovative initiative was a great opportunity to help develop the creative talents of the next generation of leaders in DSRL. Design-led innovation is a practical tool to help guide these young innovators towards developing a solution-oriented mindset in their roles. It was great to see how they embraced the process and really enjoyed it.

NDA Horizon Scanning Manager, Colin Mair, developed and presented the first part of the workshop and also supported the full day workshop. He said:

Innovation starts with ‘why?’ – in this workshop we focused on deeply understanding the challenge to develop insightful ideas into prototypes, then learn and iterate. Collaboration helps break bias and unlock creativity – we saw this come to life in the fantastic ideas and buzzing energy in the room.

The winning solution will now be developed further into a manufactured product for actual implementation on site; it is also the aspiration to run more workshops across the site in the future.