This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub scoping study - "Research needs for a national approach to socio-economic values of the marine environment". For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata.

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Effective management of natural resources and biodiversity requires an integrated understanding of the complex relationships between people and nature. This project reviewed a range of socio-ecological frameworks to identify which system components influence environmental outcomes, and which are most relevant for policy design and behaviour change. A key point of difference from previous NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub projects was an additional theme on implementation pathways, enabling research to inform the full progression from policy to on-ground action.

Through a co-design process with stakeholders, the project identified priority social and economic research needs and assessed the availability of relevant datasets to meet them. A key outcome was the identification of three common decision contexts faced by managers—monitoring, trade-off analysis, and promoting behaviour change—and the matching of appropriate frameworks and data to each context. The findings highlight critical data gaps, while providing practical guidance on how existing information can be strategically used to inform management and policy decisions.

Outputs

• Inventory of compiled datasets relating to relevant economic values, threats, and socioeconomic values for Case Study locations [data inventory]

• Four fact sheets, each based around common decision contexts encountered by the project [written]

• Final Project Report [written]