Natural England’s new Strategy ‘Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security’ has been issued.
Government UK writes:
…. Nature is our diverse wildlife, stunning landscapes, flowing rivers, dynamic seas and the soils and geology beneath our feet. We are part of nature and wholly dependent upon it. Nature shapes, and is shaped by, our history, culture and land use. It continues to define the places where we live and work; enjoying and caring for nature continues to shape the quality of our lives.
Recovering nature means restoring and enhancing the ecosystems that enable wildlife and people to thrive in a growing population. This is not about going back to a historical fixed state. It is about taking the actions needed for nature to adapt and be more resilient to pressures like climate change.
Strategic recovery of nature, integrated with land and sea use planning, will help deliver the homes and infrastructure we need, strengthen national security and reduce environmental risks and costs. Abundant and diverse nature, restored at scale across our landscapes and seas, will provide greater benefits to everyone, wherever they live. While we, our children and future generations, will experience a different nature, we will all experience more nature that will be wilder, richer and more accessible than today.
The difference you will see:
We will:
- Shift from isolated interventions to nature recovery happening at scale, ensuring our efforts deliver lasting improvement across whole landscapes and seascapes
- Achieve more by increasingly enabling and trusting others to deliver for nature
- Raise our risk appetite and stay focused on outcomes rather than processes
- Prioritise resources and investment in areas that deliver the greatest benefits for communities and nature
- Move from treating symptoms to tackling root causes: our work will be more strategic, and more ambitious, to create resilient and dynamic nature
Success: results that matter
These are the headline outcomes we are working towards, delivering the United Kingdom’s statutory environmental and climate commitments, including the Environmental Improvement Plan, Net Zero by 2050 and the legally binding target to halt species decline by 2030.
- Nature is thriving. By 2030, at least 30% of land and sea is effectively managed and conserved, and nature is recovering beyond these places with species abundance and distribution increasing across wider landscapes
- More businesses are actively embedding nature into their operations and investment decisions, for example, using green infrastructure standards to enable housing and infrastructure growth alongside nature’s recovery
- More people are engaged outdoors in nature rich spaces every week, and everyone has nature within a 15 minute walk of where they live
- Nature is central to national security, with restored ecosystems giving us clean and plentiful water, bountiful harvests and protecting communities from flooding and heatwaves
