What’s next for Jersey’s Coastal National Park?

Friday 14 March 2014

Jersey’s Coastal National Park is under the spotlight as a new team discusses how it will work for those living and working in it and how locals and visitors can best use it to enjoy the Island’s natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage.

The States approved the Coastal National Park in 2001 to protect parts of the Island’s coastline and countryside considered to be of local, national or international importance. Now the Environment department has chosen a team of fifty to work together to see what needs to be done to make the Park a reality.

Representatives from marine and fishing groups, heritage, local businesses, parishes, agriculture as well as recreational and land management organisations will get together to flesh out the practical realities at an all-day workshop being held this week.

The Park covers 1,925 hectares and is considered to be a tourism asset for Jersey. It contains three Ramsar sites, eight ecologically sensitive areas and a number of sites of special ecological, geological and archaeological interest: Jersey’s south west headlands, St Ouen’s Bay in the west, the north coast, St Catherine’s Bay and part of Grouville Bay in the east, and the offshore reefs and islets, including the Écréhous and the Minquiers. 

Jersey’s Environment Minister Deputy Rob Duhamel said: “The Coastal National Park provides a huge range of benefits that are beyond monetary value and are becoming even more important as the rate of change in Jersey and the wider world accelerates.

“This is the next stage in developing how the park will operate in partnership with the communities and businesses in and around it. They provide the skills and economic context needed to maintain and enhance this special part of Jersey, but they also have their own needs – personal, business and community – and these all play a part in how the park will work.”

“Ultimately, our challenge is to pass on the Coastal National Park – its environment, cultural heritage, communities and economy – for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations in as good or better state than it is today.”