The North Devon Biosphere Reserve

What is the North Devon Biosphere Reserve?

A region renowned for its natural assets, North Devon epitomises all that’s best about the English landscape. Stunning coastlines and ever-beautiful countryside change through the seasons and provide a dramatic backdrop for a whole host of sporting and leisure activities - this is an area full of contrasts and with plenty of space for all.

In fact, North Devon is so special that the United Nations has awarded the region the special accolade of world Biosphere Reserve. There are fewer than 550 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves worldwide – they include places like the Danube Delta in Eastern Europe, the Hawaiian Islands and Mount Kenya – and North Devons is the first modern one in the UK!

This world-class status is awarded to areas of high environmental quality where conservation and sustainable development go hand-in-hand. These are places where local communities, environmental groups and economic interests work together to build a sustainable future.

More information can be found on the biosphere on their website; http://www.northdevonbiosphere.org.uk/map/

Where exactly is the North Devon Biosphere Reserve…?

In North Devon, the Biosphere Reserves core is the sand dune system at Braunton Burrows. Unlike traditional ‘reserves’, the Biosphere Reserves boundaries do not stop where the sand dunes end. Instead, the Reserve area has at its heart the North Devon Coast Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty but also includes the Taw and Torridge estuaries and all the land that drains into them, together with the coast and adjacent sea. It is the farmland, moors and river valleys, the woodlands and rare culm grasslands. It is the towns, villages and hamlets and it is the sea as far as the jewel of Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel.

Our work with the North Devon Biosphere Reserve...

Here at Marsdens we are committed to offering an unrivalled choice of high quality cottage holidays, providing an industry-leading level of customer service and playing an active part in the community in which our business is based. So we are delighted to announce a new initiative which both captures the spirit of these brand values and brings positive benefits to the world-class North Devon Biosphere Reserve.

Under this pioneering new initiative – for which Marsdens is the first ever recipient of the North Devon Biosphere Sustainable Business Award – we will be asking everyone who book holiday cottages in Devon with us to donate £1 towards the Biosphere Reserve. Your contribution is optional, but we really hope you will be happy to add this small amount to the cost of your Devon holiday, thereby helping us to support and protect this important environment.

Images by Neville Stanikk courtesy of the North Devon Coast AONB