Our team was commissioned by Natural Resources Wales, the Welsh Government body responsible for managing the country’s natural resources, to evaluate the environmental, social and economic impact of the Black Spots to Bright Spots project. What makes this project unique, is its proactive approach to addressing the problem of fly-tipping on the Gwent Levels, located in South East Wales.

We created an evaluation framework to explore how the project can generate impact, as well as to quantify key benefits compared to a ‘do nothing’ scenario assuming that largely reactive approaches are adopted to tackle fly-tipping on the Gwent Levels. Our framework, including a detailed Theory of Change and Cost-Benefit Analysis tool, drew from a comprehensive review of relevant literature, as well as from in-depth discussions with key stakeholders. 

Our research contributed to a deep understanding of how proactive environmental interventions can create substantial benefits, and it informed evidence-based policy decision making for protecting the environment. Our comprehensive literature review and stakeholder engagement activities also helped us create an evidence base on the impact of similar interventions that can be used to inform future work in this area.