Located in County Down, the Mourne Mountains are the most dramatic mountain range in Northern Ireland and include Northern Ireland’s highest peak Slieve Donard at 850m (2,790 feet).
The Mournes are a landscape and habitat of international importance, located at the heart of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and designated as an Area of Special Scientific Interest. They are also a popular destination for outdoor recreation providing a place for locals, day visitors and tourists to enjoy walking, mountain biking, nature watching and many other pursuits.
Mournes Community Renewal through Nature Project
Our client, the National Trust works with Northern Ireland Water, Woodland Trust and the Mourne Heritage Trust to collectively care for large areas of the Mourne Mountains. This group of organisations is working together to develop a more holistic and collaborative approach to how they care for the parts of the Mournes owned by the National Trust and Woodland Trust, as well as those owned or managed by public bodies (see map below).
A survey of users and organisations
To inform this project 56 Degree Insight have been commission to undertake a survey of individuals and organisations who live, work, take part in recreation or use this land in other ways.
The survey is part of wider programme of engagement with the local community and key stakeholders which will provide a detailed insight into issues impacting the land and how to maximise the potential to contribute to quality of life and well-being, mitigate the climate crisis and provide sustainable economic benefits – all while safeguarding the precious and fragile environment from which these derive.
Measuring social value
Our survey is using an online approach to cover a wide range of areas to better understand the profile of individuals and organisations that use the Mournes, the activities they take part in, the quality of their experiences, motivations for visits and their views on priorities for the future of the land.
A key focus of our work is to establish the social value of the Mournes by measuring to what extent users obtain benefits relating to a wide range of areas including health, wellbeing, learning, nature connection and community cohesion. Once fieldwork is complete these results will be applied to data from other sources relating to annual visit numbers and the monetary value of benefits to obtain an estimate of the total social value of the area.
On writing the survey is still live with fieldwork continuing until Monday 26th September. Interim results are already providing valuable insights on how the area is used, the benefits it brings to locals and visitors to the area and their feedback on the future of the area. Final reporting will take place in October.
Find out more
If you’d like to find out more about this survey, our approaches to outdoor recreation evaluations or methods we can use to measure social value, please get in touch
And if you’ve visited the Mournes in the last year or are an organisation operating in the area please take part in the survey by clicking on this link! https://bit.ly/Mournes2022