The Solent Seascape Project, an ambitious initiative dedicated to restoring, protecting, and reconnecting vital marine habitats within the Solent, has recently achieved significant international recognition. In July 2024, the project was officially endorsed as a United Nations (UN) Decade Action, marking it as a key contributor to global efforts aimed at safeguarding marine biodiversity.
The endorsement of the Solent Seascape Project as a UN Ocean Decade Action reflects its role as the United Kingdom’s first seascape-scale marine restoration project. This recognition places the project among a select group of initiatives worldwide striving to bridge crucial gaps in ocean science and promote sustainable human interaction with marine environments.
Project coordinator Rosalie Wright of Blue Marine Foundation said, “We are immensely proud that the Solent Seascape Project has been recognised internationally by such a prestigious institution. As a UN Ocean Decade Action, we look forward to working alongside and learning from this network to collectively achieve change for our ocean, at a local and global scale.”
The project’s uniqueness lies in its recognition of the critical role of connectivity across key habitats – salt marshes, seagrass beds, oyster reefs and seabird sites – due to the collective benefits they provide for people and nature.
Seagrass seed collecting in the Solent. Photo: Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trusts.
The Solent Seascape Project is working to scientifically monitor the benefits of seascape-scale restoration, including measuring the carbon storage potential of restored habitats such as saltmarsh and seagrass, and ensuring that local people and sea-users co-design the project, thereby becoming more connected and engaged with their own marine environment. The restoration of all four key habitats included in the project has already started with seven seabird sites, four trial sites for seagrass, 0.25 ha for salt marsh and 0.25 ha for oysters.
The inclusion of the Solent Seascape Project as part of the Ocean Decade reflects its international importance, global standard work and allows it to connect with, and learn from, multiple other Decade Actions, ensuring the project is at the cutting edge of marine research and restoration. This will help to create a more resilient coastline by increasing carbon stores, reducing the impact of climate change, protecting coastal homes from erosion and sea level rise, improving water quality and providing areas for people to explore their natural environment.
Saltmarsh habitat in the Solent. Photo: Paul Adams.
Spanning 66 countries, the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) includes ten Ocean Decade Challenges that aim to use science for the benefit of the ocean. The Solent Seascape Project actively addresses three of these challenges: to protect and restore ecosystems, unlock ocean-based solutions to climate change, and promote positive behaviour change, improving humanity’s relationship with the ocean. As part of the Ocean Decade, the UN is aiming to create a clean, healthy and resilient ocean, that is productive, predicted, safe, accessible, inspiring and engaging.
“Since the start of the Decade, we have built a strong awareness of the need for action within our community. Now, we are channelling this determination into concrete efforts to get the best results,” said Vidar Helgesen, Executive Secretary of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO-IOC).
Harbour seals on Thorney Island. Photo: Paul Adams.
The Solent Seascape Project is a partnership of ten influential organisations working together to protect and restore important habitats within the Solent, a diverse estuarine system between the Isle of Wight and mainland England. These habitats include oyster reefs, saltmarsh, seagrass meadows and seabird nesting sites. Working collectively with local stakeholders and communities, the project aims to codevelop an ambitious recovery plan for the Solent, as well as actively restoring and reconnecting critical coastal habitats to create a thriving, functioning seascape for all.
To find out more about the Solent Seascape Project, visit their project page.
