Local Nature Recovery Strategy

About Local Nature Recovery Strategies

Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) are locally led collaborative strategies to drive nature's recovery and provide wider environmental improvements established by the Environment Act 2021. Each local nature recovery strategy will:

agree priorities for nature’s recovery
map the most valuable existing areas for nature
map specific proposals for creating or improving habitat for nature and wider environmental goals

The primary purpose of our LNRS is to find locations for the creation, connection or improvement of habitat. It aims to identify the locations most likely to provide the greatest benefit for nature and the wider environment.

Our mapping team have produced a story map which provides a useful intro on the LNRS and explains how we have completed the first step, the Step 1 map, Lancashire's Local Nature Recovery Strategy (arcgis.com).

Ambition

Our ambition is to develop an effective nature recovery strategy for the people of Lancashire, that can be delivered on the ground, with local partners working together with landowners and managers and communities.

How to get involved

Following our Public Engagement Survey in February and March to which we received 963 responses!, you can still use the interactive map Open the interactive map full page to drop points to tell us:

Where nature matters to you
Where nature recovery should be prioritised
Where local nature recovery projects are already underway

We'll use this information to help inform the development of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy.

If you have any GIS or location data for your land that could help create these maps, you can still submit it. Please get in touch through the LNRS mailbox LNRS@lancashire.gov.uk

Join one of our events or webinars

If you work/manage land in any capacity we are developing a programme of events in conjunction with our facilitators at 3KQ to provide more information, answer questions and get your views.

A programme of in-person events around the county is being developed and we are running two online webinars on 21 May and 19 June. As dates/venues are confirmed for the in-person meetings we will update here.

Please get in touch with Ruth ruth@3kq.co.uk or Jenny jenny@3kq.co.uk if:

you would like to find out about in-person meetings nearest to you
you would like an LNRS session tailored to your farmers’ or land managers’ group

Future engagement (likely to be early in 2025) will also allow everyone the opportunity to comment on the Draft Strategy.

Participation

Participation in developing these strategies is voluntary. The final opportunity maps are non-binding. There is no requirement to engage in nature recovery, however public body funding and private investment will be targeted towards areas identified to help landowners, managers and farmers deliver their local strategy and potentially provide an additional stream of revenue.

Contact details

lnrs@lancashire.gov.uk

Latest updates on our LNRS strategy update

The public engagement survey (launched in February and closed on 31 March 2024) provided an opportunity for everyone to inform a wide conversation about what the priorities for nature recovery in Lancashire should be and how these could be achieved. We received 963 completed surveys! The species that came out on top for you were hedgehogs, with Trees and Woodland coming out on top for the habitats you would most like to see prioritized for recovery in Lancashire. Approx. 82% of you were very concerned (453 responses) or fairly concerned (332 responses) about the State of Nature in Lancashire; with a wide range of responses to 'Why is nature in Lancashire important to you?', with 'Natural beauty/cultural heritage' and 'Improves my mental and physical health' receiving the most responses.

We carried out four People and Nature Roadshows (Central and South, East, North and Wyre, Blackpool and Fylde) across the County to ensure engagement with the Health, Education, VCFSE, Active Lifestyles and Community/Place-Based sectors; to help more people connect with, benefit from, and take action for nature across the county. Initial reports with the findings have been passed to each of the Local Authorities covering the four areas. Opportunities for, and where existing Nature Recovery projects are happening have been added to the engagement map (above) with a longlist of potential nature recovery projects highlighted.

About Local Nature Recovery Strategies

The Defra Secretary of State has also produced regulations on the process for preparing, publishing, reviewing and republication of a Local Nature Recovery Strategy and statutory guidance on what each Strategy should contain

We are supported by our Local Authorities. In Lancashire, we have 16 Supporting Authorities:

Blackpool unitary
Blackburn with Darwen unitary
Burnley district
Chorley district
Fylde district
Hyndburn district
Lancaster district
Natural England
Pendle district
Preston district
Ribble Valley district
Rossendale district
South Ribble district
West Lancashire district
Wyre district
Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority

We are also supported by other key partners and stakeholders including public bodies such as Natural England, the Forestry Commission, the Environment Agency and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), in addition to environmental Non-Governmental Organisations (eNGOs) for example the Wildlife Trusts, Rivers Trusts and National Trust.

We are actively collaborating with the supporting authorities throughout the development of the LNRS.

We have set up specialist groups for Habitats and Species, Land Management and mapping, data and evidence made up of key representatives from a wide variety of stakeholders. These groups help to engage and raise awareness across the sector and will feed directly into the strategy.

When LNRS need will to be completed

We began wider engagement and public consultation for Lancashire stakeholders in the Local Nature Recovery Strategy from February 2024. The aim is that the strategies are published by the end of March 2025.

They key stages in the LNRS development

To view a summary of the process behind the LNRS you can view the Statutory Guidance. Please note, that Step 2 is for future iterations of the Strategy although we starting to record this within the process now too.

The Step 1 Map – Area is of Particular Importance for Biodiversity was published to coincide with Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) becoming mandatory for major developments.

Throughout March and April 2024 we have been developing the Step 3 and each of the groups have the opportunity to review the Opportunity and Constraints element of the task.

The Species group have been pulling together species long lists for Lancashire key species and assigning them to habitat assemblages to share with the groups to help start developing Step 4

The groups have now started to develop Step 4 of the Strategy, creating a long list of Priorities – i.e., what we want the LNRS to achieve, and the Potential Measures – how we are going to achieve them.