The Living Coast

“Climate change isn’t an ‘issue’ to add to the list of things to worry about, next to health care and taxes. It is a civilizational wake-up call. A powerful message — spoken in the language of fires, floods, droughts, and extinctions — telling us that we need an entirely new economic model and a new way of sharing this planet. Telling us we need to evolve”

— Naomi Klein

The Living Coast is the name of the Brighton & Lewes Downs UNESCO World Biosphere. Designated by UNESCO in 2014 for the global importance of our natural environment and the approach to sustainability that those who live, work and learn in the region take, our Biosphere is one of over 700 designated by UNESCO around the world and the only Biosphere to contain a large urban environment here in the UK.

All Biospheres around the world have the same 3 functions:

To conserve and enhance nature and culture;
To support sustainable socio-economic development;
To enable environmental awareness, shared learning and research.

Biospheres exist to help us learn how best to support our natural environment to provide the resources we need for life. Sharing knowledge and information about our natural environment and what we learn when exploring how to support our natural environment and develop sustainably is a key part of being a UNESCO Biosphere. Local schools, colleges and university play a big part in our local UNESCO Biosphere by enabling environmental learning and research, and sharing experiences of our natural environment and sustainable development to thousands of resident students, families and visitors to the region each year, connecting actions, learning and progress locally to influencing positive change around the world via the World Network of Biospheres and the Sustainable Development Goals.

To find out more about schools resources from The Living Coast partners and associated organisations, please visit the schools pages on our website: Schools – The Living Coast

To find out more about our research programme, please visit the research pages on our website: Research – The Living Coast