The boundaries of the reserve follow the edges of the conjoined catchment basin of the Rivers Taw and the Torridge and stretch out to sea to include the island of Lundy.

The new guidelines encourage its management to strike a balance between people and conservation of the environment they live in through sustainability, income generation, and a reduction in poverty.

The sand dunes have a rich habitat of hundreds of flowering plants while the Taw-Torridge estuary is an important feeding area for long-journey migratory birds.

It covers a large area of sea up to 160 feet (49 m) in depth off the North Devon coast and includes Lundy island 12 miles (19 km) from the shore.

[1] The North Devon Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty lies at the heart of the reserve, while parts of the national parks of Dartmoor and Exmoor fringe the boundaries.

Barnstaple, Bideford, Ilfracombe, Braunton, Northam and Great Torrington contain many of the 155,000 people living in the wider buffer area of the Biosphere.

[7] On Exmoor the remains of small flint tools called microliths, used by hunter-gatherers to hunt and prepare animals, have been found and date to the late Mesolithic.

Evidence shows that extraction and smelting of mineral ores to make metal tools, weapons, containers and ornaments had started by the Iron Age.

[10] Biosphere reserves are designed to deal with one of the most important 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.

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.

To achieve this, the reserve oversees management of natural resources, initiatives to develop the local economy, and an effort to reduce inequalities between people.

[16] The partnership was formed to encourage cooperation between the relevant local authorities in fulfilling their commitments to North Devon's Biosphere Reserve.

[23][25] The Biosphere Reserve Partnership provides support to farms that encourage sustainable practices, benefit the environment, and have a good role within the community.

[22] North Devon's Biosphere Reserve contains many nationally important habitats including culm grassland (Molinia caerulea and Juncus spp.

There are also variable-flooded slacks, grassland and scrub further inland supporting a wide variety of flowering and lower plants, birds, and insects.

[27] It is characterised by marram grass (Ammophila arenaria), round-headed club-rush (Scirpoides holoschoenus), sharp rush (Juncus acutus), and willow (Salix) species.

Waterfowl winter on the shores of the sea and estuary, while the coastline supports a variety of breeding species such as whitethroats (Sylvia communis) and magpies (Pica pica) in the scrub; skylarks (Alaunda arvensis) and meadow pipits (Anthus pratensis) in the grassland; and wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe) and shelducks (Tadorna tadorna) in holes or burrows.

[27][31] The characteristic and notable species outside the core area include sea purslane (Halimione portulacoides), Salicornia spp., pea crabs that live inside mussels, lugworm, Hydrobia snails, and annual seablite (Suaeda maritima) in estuarine and saltmarsh habitats;[12][28] common reed (Phragmites australis), creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera), common rush (Juncus effusus), and fat duckweed (Lemna gibba) in the low and grazing marshland of the floodplains; and hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), ash (Fraxinus excelsior), crested dog's-tail (Cynosurus cristatus), and creeping bentgrass in mixed farmland.

[28] The reserve also contains nationally rare mammals such as the common dormouse and the European otter, the marsh fritillary butterfly, and coral reef off Lundy Island found nowhere else.

[33] Other popular attractions include surfing, the Tarka Trail, Northam Burrows Country Park, Rosemoor Garden, and Watermouth Castle.