Local Nature Recovery Strategy through a Blue Lens

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Why is the project relevant to you?

Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS’s) are new plans introduced by the Environment Act 2021 to help protect and restore nature. These strategies aim to coordinate efforts across the country to stop the loss of biodiversity and achieve the Government's nature goals for England. LNRS's will outline the actions needed to restore natural habitats, working closely with local communities, especially farmers and land managers, to ensure the best environmental results. This project has developed and tested a data driven method to include water environments ambitions within these strategies.

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Key messages for I need a broader perspective

This project's results give important water data to help make land use decisions, balancing environmental goals with food production, housing, and development. Many LNRS will use digital mapping layers, and you might be able to overlay your own maps with identified environmental needs and opportunities, if licensing allows.

Call to action

Engaging with stakeholders, like through catchment partnerships and local farming clusters, is crucial. It helps guide and confirm the Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) by identifying needs and environmental opportunities.

Call to action

The pilot approach included a workshop to identify key water needs in the area, ensuring local priorities were reflected and focused on. It was also necessary to create bespoke rules to prioritise actions. For example, removing in-channel barriers was prioritised based on the length of river opened for brown trout, though other factors like avoiding invasive species or cost could have been used.

Call to action

This project provides important water evidence to be used as a support tool for land use decisions. This evidence will not give a single answer for a location but instead provides options. Local expert understanding is key to balancing environmental goals for water, climate, and nature with food production, housing, and development to help make the right choice.

Call to action