Beach Guardian Dunes Project – Constantine, Treyarnon and Porthcothan Dunes

Beach Guardians are a Community Interest Company (CIC) based in Constantine, north Cornwall, who have established themselves as a credible and high-profile community champion – leading beach cleans and doing out-reach work with schools and through social media to connect people with their environment.

They have recently trialled a new activity with dune restoration work at Constantine Bay and are now diversifying their activities to conserve and enhance sand dune habitat across three dune sites at Constantine, Treyarnon Bay and Porthcothan Bay on the North Cornwall Coast. Work on the dunes needs to be structured and planned in order to balance the need to improve the ecological habitats on the dunes with the need to stabilise them to ensure their survival and resilience to storms and changing weather. The project will develop a work plan for volunteers to follow in order to deliver on these aims, whilst engaging the community – schools, locals and visitors – in discussions and events to raise awareness of the importance and fragility of these habitats.

The beneficiaries have received funds to pay for:
Staff time – Community Engagement Officer – 0.5FTE for one year. This person will be one of the current Beach Guardians team, providing the required FiPL additionality by undertaking an entirely new project guided by a work plan to ensure the focus is on dune stability and ecology rather than their existing core business around beach litter – they will also engage landowners in discussion about sand dune roll-back.
Education events – to support schools and adult groups in education events on and relating to the dunes.
Expenses to support schools in travelling to visit the dunes.
Equipment for events – strong beach shelter and flags.
Volunteer training and equipment – to support diversification into new areas eg: scrub management with PPE, hand tools and bespoke training.

This project has been developed in partnership with Making Space 4 Sand – a Cornwall Council project to support communities in adapting to changing landscapes around sand dune mobility and conservation. The project will support the landowners in the management of the dunes.