 animals, have been found and date to the late Mesolithic. In the Neolithic period, people started to manage animals and grow crops on farms, and started to cut down the woodlands of Exmoor, rather than act purely as hunters and gatherers. These Neolithic people created stone monuments and by the Bronze Age were creating barrows (burial mounds) and roundhouses. Evidence shows that extraction and smelting of mineral ores to make metal tools, weapons, containers and ornaments had started by the Iron Age. Bronze Age barrows have also been found on elevated parts of Bursdon Moor, near Hartland and on Berry Down, near Berrynarbor. Iron Age hill forts were built on prominent parts of the coastline and hinterland. Examples can be found at Hillsborough near Ilfracombe, Embury Beacon and Clovelly Dykes in the Hartland area, with numerous other examples along the coast.
questions the World faces today: How can we reconcile conservation of
biodiversity and biological resources with their sustainable use?
Many villages and hamlets may be found within the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), most dating back to Saxon times and many recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Grade I-listed remains of medieval architecture can be found in Combe Martin, Berrynarbor and in the hamlet of Stoke, near Hartland.
In 1959 the North Devon Coast was designated as an AONB, the first in Devon. In 1976, Braunton Burrows was designated a biosphere reserve under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme, with a focus on research questions and on environmental conservation. The reserve was greatly expanded in 2002 under a new set of guidelines that promoted the interactions of mankind with nature in terms of sustainable living, income generation, and reducing local poverty. It became the first of these "new style" biosphere reserves in the United Kingdom. The dune system of Braunton Burrows was re-designated as the core area of the biosphere reserve under the revised goals. Since its recognition, the AONB had no management service until the early 1990s when a Heritage Coast Service was formed to manage two defined Heritage Coasts which have similar boundaries to the AONB, the Hartland Heritage Coast and the North Devon Heritage Coast. This service went through a number of name and remit changes, first renamed as the Northern Devon Coast and Countryside Service, and then as the North Devon AONB and Biosphere Service. The establishment of the North Devon AONB Partnership in 2004 led to the service being split to become two separate entities, the North Devon AONB Service and the North Devon Biosphere Service.
UNESCO sets out three functions of a biosphere reserve: conservation, learning and research, and sustainable development. Biosphere reserves aim to create and maintain sustainable communities where people can live and work in an area of high environmental quality; these areas can then provide a blueprint for other areas to learn from. The reserve must be environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable. To achieve this, the reserve oversees management of natural resources, initiatives to develop the local economy, and an effort to reduce inequalities between people.
Biosphere Reserve Partnership
The management of the biosphere reserve is undertaken, on behalf of local authorities and stakeholders, by North Devon's Biosphere Reserve Partnership. The group is composed of a number of interested parties including the Ministry of Defence, Devon County Council, the Environment Agency, Natural England, some educational institutions, national park authorities, representatives from northern Devon commerce and industry, local farmers and fishermen, Devon Wildlife Trust, and the National Trust. The partnership was formed to encourage cooperation between the relevant local authorities in fulfilling their commitments to North Devon's Biosphere Reserve. The partnership is required by the statutory framework for biosphere reserves, the UNESCO Seville 95 Strategy, to develop vision and strategies for the effective functioning of the reserve.
Its remit inc