New Funding Supports Community Action Station at the Scottish Seabird Centre

The Scottish Seabird Centre is delighted to announce funding from the SafeDeposits Scotland Community Fund and DWF Foundation to support a project designed to make environmental action accessible to all.

Thanks to this funding, the Scottish Seabird Centre will create a Community Action Station within its award-winning visitor centre in North Berwick. This new resource will offer free-to-borrow equipment, guidance, and take-home activities to support beach cleans, citizen science surveys and other environmental actions. It aims to remove barriers to participation, empowering more people to get involved in improving their local environment.

By providing equipment such as litter pickers, gloves and survey tools, alongside practical advice, the Scottish Seabird Centre hopes to inspire more people to take part in marine conservation efforts. The station will build on the success of existing initiatives: in 2023 alone, over 530 people borrowed equipment or joined group beach cleans through the Centre, and more than 450 volunteers signed up to support conservation projects. The Community Action Station will also support wellbeing, helping people to connect with nature and their local community, while generating valuable data through citizen science.

Emma Marriott, Conservation Officer at the Scottish Seabird Centre, said “The Scottish Seabird Centre is delighted to have support in the creation of our Community Action Station. This project aims to engage visitors to the Scottish Seabird Centre with various ‘actions for nature’ by providing them with support in the form of equipment and information. Hearing about all the pressures that our marine ecosystems are facing can be overwhelming, which is why we’re so pleased to be able to offer everyone who visits us the tools to tackle that feeling and to make a real difference.”

Alan Partridge, Marketing Manager at SafeDeposits Scotland, said “We are delighted to support this new initiative from the Scottish Seabird Centre, which seeks to make a positive environmental impact through marine conservation and furthermore provides a valuable opportunity for social inclusion.”

To find out more about the Scottish Seabird Centre and how you can get involved, visit www.seabird.org.

Image credits and captions:

• Images available for download HERE
• Image credits Jamie McDermaid
• Note these images are free to use for this story only.

ENDS

For further press information:

• Jess Thompson, Marketing Manager, email jesst@seabird.org, tel: +44(0)1620 890202.

Notes for Editors

Scottish Seabird Centre

• The Scottish Seabird Centre is an award-winning marine conservation and education charity whose purpose is to inspire and educate people about the Scottish marine environment and motivate people to care for it by supporting conservation projects.
• In 2025 the Charity celebrates its 25th anniversary of the opening of its Visitor Centre doors to the public and over the years has won multiple awards for tourism and sustainability. It has led a range of high-profile conservation and education projects including the SOS Puffin initiative in the Firth of Forth.
• Follow the Scottish Seabird Centre on Facebook/ScottishSeabirdCentre. X@SeabirdCentre and Instagram@seabirdcentre
• For more information on the Scottish Seabird Centre visit www.seabird.org

Safe Deposits Scotland

• SafeDeposits Scotland is an independent tenancy deposit scheme approved by the Scottish Government. SafeDeposits holds the deposit during the tenancy in order to keep it safe and to make sure it is available to be returned to the tenant at the end of the tenancy, if they have met the terms of their tenancy agreement. SafeDeposits also offers an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process if landlords and tenants cannot agree on how the deposit should be repaid at the end of the tenancy.
• The SafeDeposits Scotland Community Fund was introduced by SafeDeposits Scotland on 1st April 2023 and issues grant awards to organisations to deliver projects that meet at least one of five set criteria: Sustainability and the environment; Employability and career skills; Social inclusion; Technology and digital inclusion; Improving the local community. SafeDeposits Scotland is a not-for-profit organisation. Its running costs are funded entirely from the interest earned on deposits held, and landlords, letting agents and tenants do not have to pay any fees to take part in the scheme. The SafeDeposits Scotland Community Fund is funded by surpluses generated.

The DWF Foundation

• The DWF Foundation is an independent charity founded by DWF to help individuals, groups, and communities achieve their full potential.
• Since 2015, it has been the heart of DWF’s charitable giving—reflecting their values and culture of contribution.
• DWF Foundation do more than just give grants. Through volunteering, capacity building, and raising awareness, they support grassroots charities tackling real-world challenges.
• With all operating costs covered by DWF Foundation, every penny raised goes directly to good causes.
• To date, they’ve awarded over £1.4 million in grants to charities globally.

Key Facts about Scotland’s marine environment

• Scotland has over 18,000km of coastline, in excess of 900 islands, 61% of the UK total sea area.
• The area of Scotland’s seas is about 6 times the land mass of Scotland.
• Scotland’s seas support an amazing diversity of wildlife with over 6,500 species recorded.
• A third of Europe’s breeding seabirds are found in Scotland.
• Seabirds are one of the world’s most threatened groups of vertebrates and one in three species are globally threatened with extinction, including populations of Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) and Black-legged Kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) which are enjoyed by visitors to the Firth of Forth.
• Important marine species include basking sharks, dolphins, porpoises and seals. About 35% of Europe’s harbour (or common) seal population also occur in UK waters with 83% of these found around Scotland’s coast.
• Underneath the water, Scotland supports important marine habitats such as cold-water coral, kelp forests and flame shell beds (an important blue carbon resource).
• Our oceans are important natural resource for combatting the effect of climate change. 83% of global carbon cycle is circulated through the world’s oceans and our coastal habitats account for around 50% of the total carbon sequestered in ocean sediments.
• Healthy seas, however, have huge potential to provide natural solutions to the climate emergency by locking up carbon and helping the planet to cool.
• In the last 50 years we have lost 2% of the oxygen in our oceans as a direct result of climate change, this is already having a devastating impact on our marine eco-systems and if left unchecked will be catastrophic for food security the world over.