Restoring Shetland’s Seas: Community Identification of Challenges and Opportunities for Marine Restoration and Enhancement

Activity: Talk / Presentation / Podcast / Webinar › Oral presentation

Description

The sea plays a central role in Shetland’s way of life, influencing its climate, industries, and culture. However, like many coastal regions, it faces a range of anthropogenic pressures. The Marine Restoration and Enhancement for the Shetland Islands project aimed to identify local challenges and opportunities through a community co-creation process, ensuring that local voices and knowledge shaped future local delivery of national strategies.
Through a two-phase engagement process the project gathered 434 inputs from a diverse range of stakeholders, including local residents, marine industries, environmental organisations, and governmental bodies. The first phase focused on identifying key challenges and opportunities for marine restoration, resulting in the development of potential actions and guiding principles. The second phase refined these principles based on further stakeholder feedback, while evaluating community consensus on the proposed actions.
Key findings emphasised the importance of local data collection, actions across the land sea interface, and highlighted pressure management as an actionable opportunity for marine restoration. A broad consensus emerged regarding the future areas for action, which were aligned with the guiding principles developed for Shetland. The identification of successful case studies helped to shape these principles and offered practical examples for future initiatives.
The project highlights the value of community-driven management efforts, offering a model for how local knowledge can inform national strategies. Shetland’s approach provides insights into the potential for participatory efforts to foster lasting environmental recovery, ensuring that marine environments remain sustainable for future generations.
Period9 Jul 2025
Event titleRestoring Meadow, Marsh and Reef 2025: Restoring Estuarine and Coastal Habitats
Event typeConference
LocationScarborough, England, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of RecognitionNational

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