12Nov 2020
ReMEDIES Boater Behaviour Survey

The Boater Behaviour Survey as part of CEP’s research for the Life ReMEDIES Project is now live

CEP is seeking a range of recreational boaters to take part in a survey about boating practices and sea grass as part of the LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES project.

LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES is a four-year marine conservation partnership project working to Save Our Seabed at five Special Areas of Conservation along England’s south coast, through seagrass restoration, education and innovation. It is funded by the EU LIFE programme and led by Natural England in partnership with Marine Conservation Society, Ocean Conservation Trust, Plymouth City Council/Tamar Estuaries Consultative Forum and Royal Yachting Association.

The project is looking at the behaviours of people who boat for recreation specifically focussing on anchoring and mooring in seagrass. We are focusing on two special areas of conservation Plymouth Sound & Estuaries and Solent Maritime – Isle of Wight and would like to hear from people who go boating for recreation in these areas.

We are really keen to involve as wide a range of recreational boaters as possible, so if you are able to help us to publicise the survey and encourage boaters to participate please do so by sharing this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/R5H7PJ3

If you’re a sailor, powerboater or enjoy any other type of recreational boating in and around the Solent/Isle of Wight or Plymouth, we’d like to find out more about you and your boating practices. Please complete our online survey, open until Wednesday 2 December.

If you have any queries about this survey, please contact Clare Twigger-Ross (Technical Director).

Team CEP
6Nov 2020
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).

Team CEP