Natural England’s Coastal Access Programme aims to increase and improve public access to England’s coastline. It is constructing the King Charles III England Coast Path, a route around England’s coast that is being identified and implemented in specific stretches. The aim is to enable visitors to access and travel along the coastline, enjoying the environment, scenery and leisure opportunities. However, providing space and opportunities for recreation alongside other land uses (such as nature conservation) can be challenging.
Above: “The aim is to enable visitors to access and travel along the coastline, enjoying the environment, scenery and leisure opportunities.” Images: Ian Branch – Unsplash
To protect sensitive areas while still ensuring that visitors have access to and enjoyment of the coast, Natural England has identified appropriate routes along the coastline and ways to help guide visitors along them. This project aims to understand how visitors interact with the Coast Path as it has been designed and laid out, and therefore evaluate whether the design of the route by Natural England and land managers is successfully safeguarding land uses – such as the protection of wild bird populations – without unduly restricting visitor access and enjoyment.
The findings of this work, which will be published here, will feed directly into Natural England’s Coastal Access Programme, informing the design and implementation of interventions at coastal sites to benefit local biodiversity.
This project is being designed and led by:Prof Kevin Gaston, University of Exeter
Dr James Lowe, University of Exeter
Gavin Stark, Natural England
For further information about this project, contact: coastpath@exeter.ac.uk
For more information about RENEW, please visit https://renewbiodiversity.org.uk/ or email renew@exeter.ac.uk
Banner image by Graham Pengelly - Unsplash
