Your donation will help to ensure that the wonders of our coastline will always be there for our children and grandchildren.
© NTPL / Joe Cornish
A clear alternative
Acquiring and making accessible areas of coastline is just the start of our work. We must also make sure that the places already in our care are looked after. These special places don’t just look after themselves. There is a great deal which goes on behind the scenes. Working with our tenant farmers is critical to the management of our coastline. Adapting to the effects of climate change, and taking steps to work as effectively as possible with the grain of nature is also a vital part of our work.
Building a bigger picture
Piece by piece the Trust has built up our coastal stewardship – some parts of this jigsaw of acquisition have taken decades of planning to piece together. In other cases the opportunity to bring threatened but beautiful coastline under the Trust’s unique protection has arisen almost by chance. Without the support of the Neptune Coastline fund, as in the case of Wembury Point, much of this work would simply not be possible.
Some of the many threats
No one else can provide the long-term protection that the Trust gives through our inalienable ownership of land – holding it, caring for it, maintaining and enhancing its beauty and wonder – for ever, for everyone.
Pollution, climate change, erosion, inappropriate development – these are all threats which can blight our coastline. Rows of caravan sites on the North Wales coast and the industry which sprawls away around our ports illustrate only too well what can happen if our coastline is not protected.
Still a long way to go
There are still areas of coastline which we need to acquire, but with over 707 miles already in our ownership, acquisition is very much only part of the story. The management of the coastline we already own, achieved through the generosity of donors is a huge and continuing commitment. We are very conscious of the responsibility we have to our donors for this, and we are delighted when we can share the fruits of our work with so many people. Who could not rejoice at the success of choughs nesting on our coastal land in West Wales, or the terns on the Farne Islands?
Our work is far from finished - it is really only just beginning in National Trust terms. Neptune is 42 years old, but in the context of our responsibility to conserve our wonderful coastline for ever, Neptune is in its infancy.
|
