Cromer Shoal Chalk Beds
The Norfolk coast is home to the longest chalk reef in Europe, possibly the world: the Cromer Shoal Chalk Beds. From 2017 to 2023, we worked to protect it with the local community.
A sponge crab on the Cromer Shoal Chalk Beds
Credit: Samantha Bean
Our Common Ground Community Voice Method project spent time in Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire, talking with local people living along the coast about how they connected to, and valued, the sea. Our project played a crucial role in understanding how conservation measures would be received and what more could be done in the region. Now, as a result of the designation of the Cromer Shoal Chalk Beds Marine Conservation Zone causing concern amongst some community members, we were able to put our Common Ground learning to good use with our Agents of Change project.
The Agents of Change project worked with locals to help managers of the Conservation Zone decide the best way forward in collaboration with the local community, including through a Stakeholder Group. We have also raised awareness of the Cromer Shoal Chalk Beds in local schools and the wider community about the amazing wildlife, seascapes and marine cultural heritage of the area.
Learn more about the Cromer Shoal Marine Conservation Zone.
Our Agents of Change project in Norfolk was part of the Marine CoLABoration, funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and co-funded by the LIFE programme of the European Union. Our fishing-environment schools programme in Norfolk was funded by Seafarers UK, Norfolk Coast Partnership and the Wash and North Norfolk Marine Partnership.
