In support of the governement's Natural Environment White Paper 2011 (England), North Devon's Biosphere Reserve has been chosen to be one of the small handfull of pilot areas in England to test approaches to Biodiversity Offsetting.

Offsetting is not a licence to trash. The partnership in the Biosphere Reserve regards the offsetting as thye last step in a design process that reduces as far as apossible any biodiversity loss arising from developments. Developers are asked to offset the residual loss of any development. The offsets are invested into creating or restoring habitats according to a spatial strategy that will ensure coherent ecolcogical networks for resilience. More information on the Defra website.

The community has expressed the wish to explore how they can be an operation Biosphere Reserve for mutual benefit to the community and the UNESCO programme. This willngness has meant that this site will not be removed from the Worldwide Network of Biosphere Reserves while progress is being made.

The study can be found at this link.

The Galloway and South Ayrshire proposed biosphere reserve welcomed speakers from two European biosphere reserves and two 'new style' UK biosphere reserves at a public conference held in New Galloway on 20 May 2010. The conference brought together local communities, biosphere managers and experts from across Europe to explore the benefits that a biosphere could bring to Galloway and Southern Ayrshire.

The Galloway and South Ayrshire proposed biosphere reserve welcomed speakers from two European UNESCO biosphere reserves and two 'new style' UK biosphere reserves at a public conference held in New Galloway on 20 May 2010. The conference brought together local community representatives, biosphere managers and experts from across Europe to explore the benefits that a biosphere could bring to Galloway and Southern Ayrshire.Timo Hokkanen from Karelia Biosphere Reserve, Finland and Christian Diry from Wienerwald Biosphere Reserve, Austria joined Andrew Bell from North Devon's Biosphere Reserve, South England, and Allan Wynne Jones and Peter Frost from Biosffer Dyfi Biosphere, North Wales, to share perspectives from their areas on organisation, zonation, stakeholder participation, communication, education, research, and economic and social development. Members of the UK MAB Committee also attended the conference which provided them with an opportunity to discuss views with local community and business representatives.

All the conference presentations can be found on the proposed Galloway and South Ayrshire Biosphere website.

North Devon's Biosphere Reserve has launched its strategy and action plan. Hot on the heels of this launch the area has just been awarded £3.8M for its Local Action for Rural Communites bid, which featured the biosphere reserves as a main driver.

North Devon's Biosphere Reserve has launched its strategy and action plan. Hot on the heels of this launch the area has just been awarded £3.8M for its Local Action for Rural Communites bid, which featured the biosphere reserves as a main driver.

http://www.northdevonbiosphere.org.uk/