Our Dee Estuary
The Tidal Dee Catchment Partnership initiated the Our Dee Estuary project after it concluded that a cross-border estuary-wide partnership approach is needed to tackle the intertwining and wide-ranging threats to the Dee Estuary. These threats range from recreational and water quality issues, to the need for improved governance alongside increased community awareness of the amazing wildlife. As such, the delivery of Our Dee Estuary will be a pioneering and nationally exciting and inspirational project.
Our Dee Estuary aims to:
Create a nature-based sense of place around the Dee Estuary making it a greater part of more people’s lives and a better place to live, work and play. Work with local communities, estuary users, visitors and other partners to ensure our natural heritage is better managed, better recorded, better interpreted and in better condition.
Improve access gateways and opportunities, breaking down barriers and making it easier for local communities and visitors to spend time enjoying the Dee Estuary without putting the heritage at risk.
Provide opportunities for lifelong learning and training, enabling more and a wider range of people to develop new skills and ensuring that the rich heritage of the area is better understood by all.
Empower a diverse range of people from across the target audience area to become Dee Champions, reducing negative environmental impacts and engendering a culture of stewardship and a lasting legacy.
Our Shared Vision
Our Dee Estuary is about connecting coastal communities of the Dee Estuary (Wirral, Cheshire West and Chester, Flintshire and Denbighshire) with their natural heritage to create a new community of stewardship to protect the unique and spectacular coastal area. The community will be defined by a nature-based sense of place, one shaped by joyous experiences and a deep understanding of the estuary’s wildlife and that drives a passion to protect it.
A Nature-based Sense of Place for the Dee Estuary
A place without boundaries and where a mutual sense of place and a community of stewardship can be forged by highlighting and reflecting aspects of their shared interest and experience. Communities of different backgrounds and cultures connect around the common approach to caring for the diverse and fragile nature.
A place of many diverse parts managed as a whole, regardless of place or politics through cross-boundary and collaborative working among organisations and groups around the estuary. Decisions put nature first and help people to take the right actions for wildlife. United estuary governance and connected management ensures a sustainable legacy for wildlife in the estuary.
A place where people find joy in wildlife and seek relationship through deep understanding of it. People see it as a privilege and responsibility to share their lives with this diverse wildlife and consider the impact of their enjoyment and use of the estuary.
The Tidal Dee Catchment Partnership
As a coastal project spanning two countries and established by a Catchment Partnership – partnerships usually associated with delivering inland water related projects, the development of Our Dee Estuary has raised the profile of the Tidal Dee Catchment Partnership nationally amongst coastal and catchment partnerships alike and put the Dee Estuary ‘on the map’ across strategic networks.
The Tidal Dee Catchment Partnership was formed in response to Defra’s 2013 call for hosts to facilitate local collaboration between stakeholders, and to identify priority actions for the water environment, in line with the Catchment-Based Approach of:
- Delivering positive and sustained outcomes for the water environment by promoting a better understanding of the environment at a local level; and
- Encouraging local collaboration and more transparent decision-making when both planning and delivering activities to improve the water environment which also deliver multiple benefits to the environment and society including Biodiversity 2020 and flood risk management objectives.
- The aim of the Tidal Dee Catchment Partnership is to maintain, enhance and protect the Dee Estuary by integrating the catchment based approach to promote its sustainable use, enhance its wildlife value and provide recreation and access to nature.
The partnership includes:
- Dee Estuary Conservation Group
- Denbighshire County Council
- Environment Agency
- Flintshire County Council
- Marine Management Organisation
- Natural England
- Natural Resource Wales
- North Wales Wildlife Trust
- RSPB
- Welsh Dee Trust
- Wirral Council
