Joined up action for climate and nature across South Devon

The Round Table will be held in the Cary Room at Follaton House outside Totnes from 3pm to 5pm. There will be tea/coffee on arrival and time for conversation and refreshments at the end. Anyone with a current role in an organisation that is taking action on climate change and recovering nature in South Devon, or an interest in being involved in this work, is welcome to attend.

Following on from the workshop that took place on Tuesday 17 June, the Bioregional Learning Centre, Sustainable South Hams and John McKay and Adam Williams from South Hams District Council have been meeting to map the next steps. These are:

• To bring into being the South-Devon wide working group on climate adaptation and mitigation, and biodiversity, with a core team and task teams. The secretariat for this is being provided by the Bioregional Learning Centre and partially funded by South Hams District Council.

• To review and synthesise the leading plans that already exist, from the Devon, Cornwall, Isles of Scilly Adaptation Strategy; the climate emergency plans held by district councils; the imminent Land Use Review, and others. There will be a preliminary report on this at the Round Table on 10 September.

• To lay out the steps towards creating a Bioregional Plan with a democratic process of consultation and consensus building across South Devon. This will be done with the support of Rufus Howard (expert in environmental impact assessment and planning for major infrastructure, and in particular on policy, knowledge management and guidance development who spoke at the event on 17 June). 

• To share the steps being taken to set up a bioregional financing facility, with a bioregional fund for this work. In the spirit of joining up many initiatives, the intention is to gather fundable projects under an overarching goal of South Devon resilience and adaptation.

• To share ideas on how data and information can be shared between all organisations plus community groups, and to sketch out a communications strategy that keeps the public informed.

Devolution is giving us an opportunity to look beyond existing political boundaries and imagine a more resilient future at the scale of the whole of South Devon. Planning for a changing climate goes hand in hand with action on biodiversity. Working together means we can share ideas, data and resources plus identify collaborative projects and increase the impact of all our work. With alignment on climate change and nature already running vertically from Devon County Council to District Councils, town and parish councils and NGOs we think that South Devon can become an exemplar region for the UK.