NCI attend Marine Ecological Restoration Training with SER Europe

The first day concluded with a field trip to Merrion Strand to learn about the Dublin Bay Biosphere Reserve and the challenges of restoring seagrass in areas with high recreational pressure. Thank you to Lorraine Bull (Executive Biodiversity Officer with Fingal County Council) and Dr Liam Morrison (University of Galway & CLIMAREST) for sharing your knowledge.

Earlier in September 2025, Natural Capital Ireland participated in a brilliant two-day training with CLIMAREST and the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) Europe, focused on marine ecosystems. One of our highlights was the field trip to Merrion Strand, pictured above, where we learned about the challenge of seagrass restoration in an area with high recreational pressures, wastewater impacts, and a changing coastline with an emerging lagoon and salt marsh.

We also benefited greatly from the sessions with Diana Pound from Dialogue Matters Ltd., regarding the need for effective and inclusive stakeholder participation processes in restoration projects. A key takeaway for us was that people are generally not logical optimisers and make the majority of our decisions through heuristics. Diana emphasised the power of social norming and stories showcasing examples to drive change through thoughts like, "If they could do it, so could I."

Another interesting session looked at the SER Ecological Recovery Wheel and the accompanying Five-star System to assess ecosystem attributes. For example, in this marine example. SER recommends these are used "to characterise the reference ecosystem, as well as to evaluate baseline condition, set project goals, and monitor degree of recovery at a restoration site." Learn more here, and view a training video here. There is also a Social Benefits Wheel, which can be used to track how a restoration project integrates socio-cultural and socio-economic elements.

Throughout the two days, there were very interesting case studies shared by projects such as CLIMAREST (featuring both their demo sites and the Digital Toolbox), REST-COAST, A-AAGORA, and SEA-BOOST. The training course shared other avenues for future collaboration and learning too, such as the European Seagrass Restoration Alliance and the Native Oyster Restoration Alliance.

Thank you to Sahar Stevenson-Jones from SER Europe for coordinating such a fantastic course, along with the great support of Dr Liam Morrison and Dr Juan Lugilde Yáñez from the University of Galway!

NCI Executive Coordinator, Deirdre Lane, pictured with Grace Carr (Left; Irish Wildlife Trust) and Dr Diana Pound (Middle; Dialogue Matters Ltd.)