Since its inception, Lucent has facilitated the Irish Sea Network - an international collaboration of Wildlife Trusts and their partners around the Irish Sea - to protect the marine environment.
Irish Sea Network
With the changing climate, industrial scale fishing and rapid development, the marine environment is undergoing significant and rapid transformation.
The Irish Sea Network was established to provide an inclusive and comprehensive approach to the Wildlife Trusts’ campaigning around conservation of the Irish Sea, which transcends six national borders (Scotland, England, Wales, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland) - each with its own set of policies, laws, and perspectives on marine conservation. It has also been joined by other partners via the Sustainable Water Network (in the Republic of Ireland) and the Northern Ireland Marine Taskforce.
Through funding provided by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the John Ellerman Foundation, this innovative collaboration aims to improve collective impact across the Irish Sea by creating a whole-view approach to conservation and management.
The strategic journey
Established in 2020, the Irish Sea Network partnered with Lucent Consultancy to launch and develop their unique cross-regional partnership. With a strong focus on knowledge-sharing across borders and organisations, the network's primary objectives were to shape decision-making processes and increase awareness of the intricate challenges inherent in working at a regional scale.
Georgia de Jong Cleyndert, Head of Marine for the North West Wildlife Trusts (Cumbria, Lancashire and Cheshire), has been a pivotal part of the network’s launch and development over the past four years, and has worked closely with Lucent during this time.
“Within the Wildlife Trusts, we have established a strong network for knowledge sharing on marine conservation issues through the Living Seas movement”, Georgia explains. “But we’d identified that the Irish Sea has quite unique and different issues compared to other regions; specifically when we’re thinking about the regional sea being surrounded by six different nations.
“It’s a complex area to manage because each nation has different policies, different legislation, different targets and different priorities. It’s also a really busy regional sea with an increasing amount of pressure - all of this combined makes management difficult. We identified a need to work together in a unified way to increase impact… and so the Irish Sea Network was formed.”
“Lucent’s deep experience in setting up the foundations has been instrumental in guiding us through the entire process; from undertaking independent reviews and interviews to establish the core needs of our work, to carving out a strong strategic path that takes every nation and organisation’s needs into account.”
A strategy focused on cross-regional collaboration
The Lucent team has helped the network navigate through its first four years; providing real-world experience and valuable insights to shape practical processes and impactful collaboration.
“The first year was very much about setting the foundations”, Charlotte Ravenscroft (Consultant, Lucent Consultancy) explains. “We interviewed each partner to understand what people wanted, what capacity people had, and how everyone saw value in this process. The findings from these interviews enabled us to map out a path forward, taking everyone’s needs into consideration.”
“After this, we established terms of reference, vision and position statements together, highlighting the network’s key priorities. We established a pattern of quarterly meetings to share intelligence across the Irish Sea. This led into the Irish Sea Network’s first major piece of work, to bring the evidence base from across the six nations together, producing a joint review of the state of the Irish Sea that was published in autumn 2022.”
“During 2023, we supported the Network to develop a further report with clear recommendations for marine spatial planners in the respective nations and international organisations. Published in February 2024, this now provides joined up policy asks - foremost among them the need for each nations’ policymakers and spatial planners to liaise with their counterparts when planning new developments such as wind farms because right now the cumulative impacts on nature are being overlooked. We’ll also be engaging directly with the public during 2024, because what happens to the Irish Sea will affect us all.”
“It’s been a pleasure working with such a committed group that are taking on critical complex policy issues. Facilitating the Networks’ quarterly meetings and annual workshops has been about giving everyone involved a safe space to share and work through challenges together - because collective action really is essential. Ultimately, the Irish Sea Network stands as an example of the type of multi-lateral collaboration that we think is needed to better protect the marine environment.”
The Outcome
Speaking of the process, Georgia de Jong Cleyndert said:
“Lucent’s deep experience in setting up the foundations has been instrumental in guiding us through the entire process; from undertaking independent reviews and interviews to establish the core needs of our work, to carving out a strong strategic path that takes every nation and organisation’s needs into account.
“If I was to share words of wisdom with anyone else undertaking a project like this, I would say:
Always leave longer than planned for discussions! When writing any report or documents, spend a long time carving out the ‘what, why, how’ of the document. Make sure everyone is on the same page before you start writing anything down.
Be open to new ideas and ways of doing things. Lucent’s idea of running CEO briefings has been really useful - and not something we would have done on our own.
Find independent facilitators you can trust, who can guide you through the ups and downs of the process. Lucent’s ‘Gartner’s Hype Cycle’ demonstration reassured us that the peaks of excitement and troughs of disillusionment are completely normal!”
The Irish Sea Network is excited to plan the next phase and continue to make real impact in the region.
If you've just launched a collaborative network and are looking for support establishing one, setting up processes or mapping out your strategic path, let us know. We'd love to support you on your journey.
