The coastal zone between the Solent and Sussex Bay is home to one of the largest concentrations of seascape restoration activities in the UK. Given the rapid decline of crucial native habitats, such as saltmarshes, oyster reefs, kelp beds and seagrass beds, it is critical to scale up and coordinate these local efforts.
Aiming to co-develop a long-term strategy that better integrates finance and biodiversity into future seascape restoration initiatives, the UK Seascape Restoration Research Network was established in January 2023 by a collective of five south coast research institutions: Universities of Portsmouth, Brighton, Sussex, Surrey and the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. The network will hold a range of thematic workshops throughout May – November 2023, both locally and nationally.
This online workshop will feature a deep dive into attracting private funding for coastal restoration through the development and trade of carbon credits. The lead speaker at this workshop, Dr Melissa Ward (Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford), will provide an overview of the ongoing work on developing the UK Seagrass Carbon Code (https://www.socsci.ox.ac.uk/planting-the-seeds-for-uk-seagrass-restoration). This talk will be followed by a presentation from Claude Annels from the University of Brighton, who is monitoring blue carbon stocks in the kelp forests of Sussex Bay as part of her PhD work.
The invited talks will be followed by breakout discussions, which will tackle topics such as outlining the next steps to generating and trading blue carbon credits in the Solent and Sussex Bay, and ensuring that these credits bring a meaningful change to the local habitats and communities.
A more detailed agenda will be circulated to registered attendees prior to the event. For more information, please contact: karolina.skalska@port.ac.uk