The CHaPRoN Partnership
Chichester Harbour Conservancy established the Chichester Harbour Protection and Recovery of Nature (CHaPRoN) partnership in 2021 as a response to the declining state of nature. The partnership includes the Environment Agency, Natural England, Sussex IFCA, Coastal Partners, the RSPB, Southern Water and the Three Harbours Partnership.
The long term objectives are to:
- Connect people with nature
- Restore ecosystems to favourable condition
- Increase biodiversity
- Achieve greater resilience to climate change
- Sequester blue carbon and contribute to net zero
- Improve water quality
- Maximise nature friendly farming opportunities
This will be achieved by:
- Reducing the pressures on the natural environment to enable habitats to naturally regenerate
- Restoring habitats through active interventions and give nature a helping hand to recover
- Realising the benefits society gains from the natural environment by quantifying and determining their economic value
The CHaPRoN Partnership acknowledges that success will only be achieved by collaborating with communities, businesses, landowners, farmers, public bodies, academia, industry and NGOs to share best practice, trial new ideas and delivery models, and advance objectives together.
A key element on the journey is to identify and acknowledge the causes of habitat decline. This will include acquiring necessary data or evidence, collaborating with universities or commissioning new research to increase our understanding of the causes and their impact on the natural environment.
Our Approach
- An integrated and holistic approach to nature recovery, including coastal and flood management strategies, water quality management and harbour management practices to enable self-sustaining and resilient ecosystems to evolve for the future and ensure our natural assets are protected.
- Working with natural processes, identify innovative and sustainable mechanisms and trial new solutions to protect, restore and create habitats that are resilient to future climatic and anthropogenic pressures.
- Connecting people with nature in the harbour, raising awareness and appreciation of our natural assets, their value and importance for the future of society.
Boosting the Benefits
The CHaPRoN Partnership wish to increase the awareness and understanding of people visiting, living and working around the harbour of the value of the natural environment and the many benefits its health can bring – including tourism and economic growth, wellbeing and leisure, water quality, carbon storage and flood and coastal erosion risk management. Partners will work collaboratively to:
- Explore opportunities to restore saltmarsh within the harbour, to help combat the pressures surrounding coastal squeeze and develop more sustainable approaches to managing the coastline.
- Explore opportunities to improve coastal processes and increase sediment supply. For example, gradual eroding coastal cliff edges naturally provide gravel to grow spits and beaches and sand and clay to nourish mudflats and salt marshes.
- Trial new techniques such as the beneficial use of dredged sediment to restore saltmarsh and the use of biodegradable structures to retain sediment, encouraging expansion of saltmarsh between fragmented areas.
- Influence local policies to safeguard land around the harbour for future saltmarsh and grazing marsh sites.
- Plan a safe route for the future coastal footpath. As sea level rises, and we continue to experience the impacts from storms and flooding, we need to provide safe access so that people can continue to enjoy the Harbour land/seascape.
- Drive forward the recovery of the SSSI through the improvement of the condition and extent of the saltmarsh within Chichester Harbour, helping to increase the wider benefits that this brings to people, the environment and wildlife.
Working in partnership and finding cost effective solutions will be key to driving forward change.