UK SEAS North Devon Ecosystem Service Assessment

Tender description

The UK SEAS Programme is a four-year programme of work which will be led by WWF from April 2017 - April 2021 focusing on two case study areas: North Devon and the Outer Hebrides. The UK SEAS project will do the following: - We will work with communities in North Devon and the Outer Hebrides to come up with new and creative ideas for better managing Marine Protected Areas so that people and nature can thrive. - The UK's network of marine protected areas provides a key opportunity to improve the health of our seas. We will take a fresh look at how we coordinate the management of these areas, recognising that decisions made in one place have consequences elsewhere. - We want to work in partnership to find innovative ways of financing management to improve the health of our seas and bring economic growth. As part of this project, we have an objective to identify and trial up to two innovative sustainable financing mechanisms in case study areas which integrate ecosystem services derived from natural capital into MPA management. WWF UK is looking to commission an ecosystem service assessment of the North Devon Marine Pioneer Project area, as a component of the WWF led UK SEAS programme sustainable finance workstream. We require the ecosystem service assessment in order to do the following as part of the UK SEAS programme: a) produce communications materials for local community on the benefits of a healthy marine environment b) engage North Devon stakeholders in discussions about threats and opportunities around natural capital and MPAs, who bears the costs, who benefits, and who would be willing to pay c) incorporate natural capital into WWF's framework for evaluating sustainable finance options and build the business case for sustainable finance options