South Coast Sustainability: navigating a path to sustainable land use
Bringing south-coast communities together to create land-use systems that meet the diverse needs of people and nature.
The wellbeing of communities, the sustainability of future generations and the health of our environment are all shaped by the way we use the land we live on. explores how land can be managed to meet competing needs for food security, biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation.
We’re producing adequate amounts of food but much of it goes to waste. Intensive, homogeneous land-use systems have damaged precious ecosystems. Farmers are facing constantly changing policies and precarious livelihoods. Bottom-up, local-level and scalable solutions are needed to address these multiple challenges.” Dr Thapa Karki
Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Sustainability
The interdisciplinary South Coast Sustainability project, co-led by Dr Thapa Karki, together with rewilding and nature recovery expert Dr Chris Sandom, is working with local communities to design a land-use system that meets the needs of people while also creating space for nature. Not only does the South Coast region include a National Park and a designated biosphere reserve, but it is also home to diverse urban communities with differing priorities for land use, including recreation, food production and materials.
A network of living labs
“We want to create a regional transdisciplinary research system through a network of ‘living labs’ to support the transition to sustainable land use,” says Dr Thapa Karki. Living labs promote a hands on, interactive approach to problem-solving, with a focus on community engagement. The system of labs will enable local stakeholders – including universities, communities, councils, businesses, advocacy organisations and farmers – to come together and freely exchange data and information. Researchers will test and develop innovative ideas, gathering valuable insights and feedback from the people most affected by changes in land use. Dr Thapa Karki describes the living labs as “knowledge exchange hubs that enable us to transfer our action-oriented research directly into practice”. The goal is to create a shared vision of a regional sustainable land-use system, develop pathways to achieving it, and equip stakeholder communities with the knowledge, training and tools they need to overcome obstacles and achieve a sustainable transition.
Working with local partners
Collaboration with a range of local stakeholders is helping to integrate different types of knowledge and is vital to the project’s success. By working with land owners and managers, NGOs such as the Sussex Wildlife Trust and the Living Coast Biosphere, regional government bodies and local businesses, including Southern Water and Shoreham Port, the team can understand the complex issues affecting land use and start to unravel potential conflicts between different groups’ needs.
An integral member of the project team is Richard Goring, Chair of the 6,000 acre Wiston estate in rural West Sussex. Researchers have the opportunity to access data collected by the estate, and hope to expand this collaborative approach to other stakeholders in different areas.
The project’s urban partners include the , whose aims to create multiuse land that provides food and spaces for people, protects and restores nature, and supports farmers’ livelihoods. The team is also working closely with Brighton & Hove City Council, whose aims to transform 13,000 acres of land on the city’s outskirts into a climate resilient landscape to support sustainable farming and wildlife.
Top-down and bottom-up solutions
The project will also analyse the broader policy landscape and consider what policy changes could help to support sustainable land use. “We want to look at the impact of evolving land use policies, such as environmental land management systems, on land management practices, food production and nature recovery,” says Dr Thapa Karki. “The current mainstream policy framework lacks the adaptive and collaborative processes needed to address context-specific issues. In our follow-up project, supported by the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme, we are examining how people on the ground make sense of top-down national guidance and how we can marry this with bottom-up ideas to create place-based, practical solutions.”
Next steps
The researchers are working to secure the long-term continuity of the living lab system and to build a guiding framework to support place-based sustainability solutions.“We’re all passionate about the issues and dedicated to creating real change,” says Dr Thapa Karki. “The work certainly won’t end when the project does.”
Further information
The project was supported by the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme.
The project team includes:
- , School of Life Sciences, ÄûÃÊÊÓƵ (PI)
- , ÄûÃÊÊÓƵ Business School
- , Institute of Development Studies
- , School of Law, Politics and Sociology, ÄûÃÊÊÓƵ
- , School of Global Studies, ÄûÃÊÊÓƵ
- Sophie Robinson, .