New research published on understanding behaviours of recreational boaters to reduce disturbance and damage to seagrass.

Natural England have published a new report: “LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES Behaviour Change Project: Understanding the behavioural context ”, written by CEP in partnership with Plymouth University and Plymouth Marine Laboratory.

The ReMEDIES Behaviour Change Project aimed to help Natural England and partners develop evidence-based interventions to influence the behaviour of recreational boaters to reduce disturbance and damage to seagrass. This report responded to the Behaviour Change Project’s objectives to review current knowledge on:

• Recreational boating behaviours - specifically anchoring and mooring – with relation to their impacts on seagrass and the effectiveness of existing mitigation measures, and

• The behavioural context at two test sites: Plymouth Sound and Estuaries and the Solent Maritime Special Areas of Conservation.

Using the COM-B behaviour change model and associated Behaviour Change Wheel, CEP and partners studied the extent to which boaters felt that their Behaviour in relation to seagrass was influenced by:

• Capability (e.g. do boat users feel they can control the extent to which their activity causes damage?),

• Opportunity (e.g. do they have options for anchoring away from vulnerable areas?), and

• Motivation (e.g. to what extent do they feel that protecting seagrass matters to them?).

The Theory of Planned Behaviour was also used to explore boaters’ motivation in more detail.

The findings of the study explore the effects of anchoring and mooring behaviours on seagrass, potential approaches to changing behaviours to prevent damage to seagrass, and the barriers and facilitators to boaters taking action. Examples of some of the key implications for behaviour change strategies derived from the findings include:

• To be effective, interventions for behaviour change need to address the psychological (e.g. motivations, emotions), social (e.g. social norms) as well as the physical (e.g. Advanced mooring Systems) aspects of boater behaviour.

• Interventions should build on the desire of boaters to protect the ocean. Attention should be paid to incorporating messages that facilitate ocean connectedness.

• Collaborate with boaters to develop co-created solutions and encourage discussion around potential interventions to explore their strengths and weaknesses for a particular location.

The full report can be found here.

For more information about the project, please contact Clare Twigger-Ross (Project Director).

CEP undertaking evaluation of Natural England's Environmental Benefits from Nature tool

CEP is undertaking the evaluation of Natural England’s Environmental Benefits from Nature tool. 

The Beta version of the tool was released for testing in July 2021. The tool is intended to expand net gain approaches to include wider Natural Capital benefits such as flood protection, recreation and improved water and air quality.

Natural England has been developing the Environmental Benefits from Nature (EBN) tool as a voluntary tool to encourage developers to consider net gain of wider ecosystem services at the same time that they work to achieve mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG).

The evaluation of the Environmental Benefits from Nature Tool (EBN) is intended to deliver the recommendations of the work carried out by CEP early in 2021 on the Creation of an Evaluation Framework for the Environmental Benefits from Nature Tool and ultimately support Natural England’s work to deliver the 25 Year Environment Plan (25 YEP) commitment to expand net gain approaches.

This evaluation will look at who is using the tool in the Beta phase, for what purposes, in what ways and why. The results will help take the tool forward into the future ensuring it is able to deliver on policy needs and requirements and that it continues to have the support of users.

The evaluation will:

• co-ordinate and evaluate up to 20 case-studies of users of the EBN tool, based upon a list supplied by the NE PM, to assess the impact of the EBN tool at different scales, in different uses and at different stages of development

• document the way the tool has been applied, the actions taken, why it has been applied in these ways and the results of these applications

• carry out a case study with a local planning authority (LPA) to take an in depth look at their experience of interacting with the EBN tool in their capacity of both approving planning decisions and acting as a consultee for changes in land use that do not require Local Authority planning permission.

The project will run till the end of March 2022.

For further information, contact Paula Orr (Technical Director)

CEP to deliver a new project on the evaluation of Biodiversity Net Gain

CEP has been awarded a new project by Natural England and Defra on the design of an evaluation framework for Biodiversity Net Gain in England

CEP, in partnership with BSG Ecology, Geodata Institute, CECAN and Vivid Economics, has been commissioned by Natural England on behalf of Defra to undertake a new project to design an evaluation framework for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) in England. The aim of mandatory BNG policy, as set out in the Environment Bill, is to secure a measurable improvement in habitat for biodiversity whilst streamlining the planning process and creating better places for local communities.

The purpose of the evaluation framework is to enable Natural England and Defra to evaluate how BNG is being delivered and understand the impact (environmental, social, and economic) of the BNG policy.

In this project we will conduct a streamlined evidence review to bring together the most up to date relevant evidence on key issues related to BNG. This evidence will feed into the development of the evaluation framework, including setting out the underpinning intervention theory by examining the logic of mandatory BNG and the intervention pathways associated with delivering BNG in practice. Development of the framework will be further supported by work to scope the data requirements and potential sources. The process will be iterative, incorporating a range of stakeholder perspectives from developers, local planning authorities, conservation, amenity and local community NGOs and partnerships as well as central government.

The project started in September 2020 and is expected to run until March 2021.

For more information, please contact Paula Orr (Technical Director, CEP) or Dr Sian Morse-Jones (Principal Consultant, CEP).

CEP to deliver a new NE project on Behaviour Change

CEP has been awarded a new project to assist Natural England to understand the behaviours of recreational boaters

CEP, in partnership with the University of Plymouth and Plymouth Marine Laboratory, has been commissioned by Natural England to undertake a new project to understand the behaviours of recreational boaters with regards to anchoring and mooring in Seagrass.

LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES (LIFE18 NAT/UK/000039) Reducing and Mitigating Erosion and Disturbance Impacts affecting the Seabed.

Action C1: Changing Stakeholder Behaviour Project

The project is part of the wider project LIFE Recreation Reducing and Mitigating Erosion and Disturbance Impacts affecting the Seabed (ReMEDIES) to improve the condition of marine habitats of European importance.

The overall aims of the Behaviour Change Project are to develop a clearer understanding of the behaviours of recreational boaters in relation to anchoring and mooring in seagrass in two pilot sites, to facilitate the design and development of interventions to address any issues uncovered, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions in order to achieve measurable behavioural changes that can lead, in the long term, to positive biodiversity outcomes.

The project focuses on two Special Areas of Conservation: Plymouth Sound & Estuaries and Solent Maritime – Isle of Wight.

Through this project, we will conduct a review of existing evidence and undertake new research with members of the local recreational boating community to further explore and understand the behavioural context. We will develop and test methods for changing behaviours and grow understanding of what works, using behavioural insights, to encourage more responsible boating behaviours, and we will disseminate learning to other sites.

The project commenced in June 2020 and is expected to end in January 2022. 

For more information, please contact Dr Clare Twigger-Ross (Technical Director, CEP) or Dr Sian Morse-Jones (Principal Consultant, CEP).