Marine Nature Recovery (MNR) – First steps towards MNR within Cornwall’s inshore seas

Marine nature recovery is needed to reverse past declines in wildlife and habitats and bring our seas back to life, so that they are healthy and thriving now and into the future for people, climate and nature. To rebuild the marine life-support systems that deliver the many benefits that society receives from a healthy ocean we need urgent action.

This is an initial exploration of the requirements for progressing nature recovery in Cornwall’s marine environment, with a focus on the existing MPA network, but also considering the wider seas. This is a ‘first steps’ approach in considering how marine nature recovery could be progressed in parallel with Local Nature Recovery Strategy development, despite being outside the legislative remit of the LNRS under the Environment Act. This was a partnership project, primarily delivered between Cornwall Council (CC), Cornwall Wildlife Trust (CWT), and Natural England (NE) but also relying on expertise and contributions from other key organisations including Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA), as well as local environmental NGOs and academic institutions.

It is hoped that the outputs in the report will also provide a useful example for other areas of the country interested in putting marine nature recovery into practice.

Outputs from the project are arranged in the final report  as a series of discrete discussion papers, including:

• A working definition of marine nature recovery
• Indicators to measure marine nature recovery success
• Criteria for prioritising marine nature recovery opportunities
• An achievable target for marine nature recovery by 2030
• Recommendation: creation of a marine mapping data portal to identify and describe a baseline for marine nature recovery in Cornwall’s inshore waters
• Recommendation: a framework for marine nature recovery stakeholder engagement work
• Summary of lessons learnt

The Marine Nature Recovery report can be found here and further information here.