Martin Harris of The Living Coast Board represented us at the event in Venice this month to report on progress of the Wild Park Rainscape Project and plan for the coming year.

The event launched the second cycle of the 3-year project called Promoting sustainable development through UNESCO’s programmes and sites. 

We are one of only 5 sites from Europe and North America selected by UNESCO and its partner the abrdn Charitable Foundation to promote the role of biosphere reserves:

• as pilot sites for sustainable development
• to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for water, climate, the ocean and land. 

The project that has been funded by this new scheme is a collaborative research project led by the University of Brighton to develop impact monitoring of The Aquifer Partnership’s Wild Park Rainscape Project. 

UNESCO visited our region in June 2023 on a field trip to see how their funding is extending our work to protect our fresh groundwater and develop natural flood solutions, as well as Environmental Education.

Image by Mischa Haller