LIFE on the Edge: Celebrating five years of coastal success

In 2020, the RSPB partnered with the National Trust to deliver LIFE on the Edge, one of our most ambitious projects to date.

Now, as the project draws to a close five years on, we’re looking back at its many achievements. These include creating dozens of islands to support nesting seabirds, and the extraordinary efforts of the local communities who came together to protect wildlife.

The legacy of LIFE on the Edge is one worth celebrating, so let’s get into it!

LIFE on the Edge has been a large-scale project designed to conserve, restore and future-proof our fragile coastal habitats. It was implemented at seven coastal. Special Protected Areas (SPAs) across England, from Morecambe Bay in the northwest, down to Langstone Harbour in the south.

These sites, where the land meets the sea, provide vital nesting habitats for many seabirds and waders. Key breeding species targeted by LIFE on the Edge include Little Terns, Sandwich Terns, Redshanks, Common Terns, Avocets and Ringed Plovers.

Such a far-reaching rollout was only possible due to collaboration with the National Trust, Natural England and the Environment Agency.

The English coastline is a globally important breeding and feeding ground for an enormous number of wading and sea birds. From the Bar-tailed Godwits and Lapwings, that flock here in winter, to the Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Oystercatchers that can be seen year-round, the significance of our coastal areas cannot be overstated. Our coasts even host huge numbers of migrating birds that use these vital sites to rest and refuel as they pass through.

Unfortunately, rising sea levels and unpredictable weather, caused by climate change, are increasing existing pressures on our coastal habitat and species. Undisturbed, these dynamic habitats grow and shrink in a natural process of renewal.

However, around the country, man-made structures like sea walls now block their ability to do so. This, combined with the pressures of climate change, leads to our coastal habitats being lost and not replaced. This is known as ‘coastal squeeze’. 

Since 1945, more than 15% of intertidal habitat, the area exposed at low tide and covered by the sea at high tide, has been lost to coastal squeeze. This includes 45% of shingle habitats and 18% of sand dunes. To secure the future of our coastal habitats and protect the birds that rely on them, something needed to be done. At the RSPB, we don’t shirk a challenge.

With the National Trust, we put together a plan of action to adapt, enhance and restore a selection of our key coastal reserves. This centred around three defined goals:

• Increase the area and improve the quality of seven chosen Special Protected Areas (SPAs), focussing on 16 species. 
• Develop recommendations for wider-scale and longer-term coastal habitat management and creation.
• Strengthen links with practitioners elsewhere in north-west Europe.

With our plans in place, we set to work… and the results have been nothing short of inspiring.

LIFE on the Edge has completed an extraordinary volume and variety of work across its project sites.

Our teams have restored 66.5 hectares (ha) of freshwater scrape (permanent shallow ponds) and saline lagoon habitat around the English coast. This includes key areas of sites like RSPB Minsmere, Titchwell and Hodbarrow, the West Hayling Nature Reserve and Farlington Marshes.

The restoration of these key coastal breeding sites has led to new successes for species like Avocets and Sandwich Terns.

LIFE on the Edge also saw the introduction of new water management and resilience systems to key coastal grazing marshes and wet grassland. This has created new wetland, ensuring sites like RSPB Old Hall Marshes in Essex, and Kent’s Seasalter, can continue to support Redshanks and Lapwings.

Through the project, the Beneficial Use of Dredged Sediment (BUDS) has also been applied at scale. On Essex’s Horsey Island, we partnered with the Harwich Haven Authority and landowner to create a new, four-hectare shingle beach with sediment that would otherwise have been deposited at sea.

This has ensured the habitat’s survival for at least the next 50 years. What’s more, record numbers of breeding Little Terns have already been recorded on the island.

At the National Trust’s Northey Island, we removed part of the seawall to enable the saltmarsh to expand naturally again. BUDS was used here, too, to increase the area of high-quality saltmarsh with silt. This has created new habitat for geese and a wide variety of waders. Better still, the marshes also act as a natural flood defence.

LIFE on the Edge’s success wouldn’t have been possible without the invaluable input of our experts and volunteers. Together, they have collaborated on large-scale projects all over England.

For example, LIFE on the Edge saw projects at key coastal areas including the Solent (the stretch of water between the Isle of Wight and the UK mainland) and Morecambe Bay in Cumbria. At these locations, our team worked to restore habitat, protect key seabird breeding sites and support a new expansion of breeding areas.

In just five years, LIFE on the Edge has delivered a lot for nature. It has improved the long-term resilience of coastal Special Protected Areas all over England.

These efforts have boosted the breeding success of key coastal bird species such as Little Terns, Avocets, Oystercatchers and gulls. Best practice guidance and long-term management plans have also been developed to support future projects.

RSPB Senior Project Manager Wez Smith said:

“It’s amazing to look back across LIFE on the Edge and see how much progress has been achieved. A host of sites are now significantly ecologically richer, with bird populations continuing to grow on restored habitat as time passes, new projects starting to be delivered that have grown from our shared ambition, and knowledge gained during LIFE on the Edge being shared and advanced.

“LIFE on the Edge reminds us, once again, that where there is joint ambition, we can achieve vastly more by working together across organisations and communities to benefit nature and people.”

For full details of the project, it’s progress and outputs, please visit the project website.