Sands of LIFE Socio-economic Assessment

The Sands of LIFE (SoLIFE) project aimed to restore over 2,400 hectares of highly protected dunes, across four Special Areas of Conservation, on 10 individual sites in Wales, from 2018 to 2024. Cumulus undertook an assessment of the socio-economic impact of the project on the local economy and population. The approach included: collation and review of NRW data on employment, expenditure and other indicators; analysis of project staff and non-staff expenditure in the local and regional economies; calculation of Gross Value Added (GVA) and employment created by project expenditure in the local and regional economies, and application of appropriate multipliers to assess indirect and induced impacts. With partner, TACP, we also undertook a sand dune practitioner survey and a sand dune community and visitor survey, and collated and analysed the survey responses. Our report focused on 15 socio-economic indicators and compared results with a baseline study.