ERC are supporting the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust with their community engagement project that forms part of the Solent Seascapes (SS) project, in particular how to use behaviour change theory to address key issues in the Solent and an evaluation of the work.

During 2023 ERC ran a workshop with key stakeholders to develop their understanding of behaviour change theory and practice and how a behaviour change approach could be applied to the SS Project. The key issues considered were poor water quality, habitat loss and disturbance from access/recreation and coastal squeeze causing habitat loss. ‘Mooring and anchoring in seagrass beds’ has been identified as the key behaviour for the project to address and ERC developed a research plan in order to find out more about motivations, and attitudes of those carrying out this activity. This included a survey of boat users in the Solent, to gain a fact based understanding about the boaters, their boats and their boating trips as well as when, where and how the behaviour (mooring and anchoring in seagrass beds) happens and the motivations, influences and barriers  (based on social norms, environmental factors and individual elements). This could then help to define the key messages and how to convey these to the community.  The 599 responses to the survey have been analysed and a number of intervention recommendations were made to the HIWWT, these are now being developed and will be implemented over the next two years of the project. 

In addition we have developed a Monitoring & Evaluation Plan for the community engagement work that the HIWWT are leading on as part of the SS project.  During Winter 2024/25 we carried out an interim evaluation of the work to date which focused on delivery performance and the learning that can be applied to create improvements before the project ends. This included analysis of all monting data that had been collected by the team as well as interviews with key stakeholders and participants. The interim evaluation report was completed in April 2025. 

​A final evaluation will be undertaken at the end of the project in 2027 and this will include an assessment of the impact on behaviour change, in particular in relation to mooring and anchoring in seagrass areas.