The local Nature Recover Strategy will shape our nature spaces (hopefully preserve and enhance them) over the next few years as we deal with an ecological emergency.
You can read the documents and take complete a questionaire on the GLA site HERE.
A summary of the purposes and key strategies from the document:
Natural spaces offer Londoners places to relax, exercise, play, and connect with the city’s natural heritage and culture. They also serve as essential habitats for wildlife, help protect the people who live and work here from the effects of climate change and play a role in improving air quality.
Yet despite its importance, nature is in decline globally and the UK is among the most nature-depleted countries in the world.
Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) are a new, nationwide system of spatial strategies that aim to help reverse biodiversity loss. There are 48 LNRS areas covering the whole of England.
The Mayor of London has produced Greater London’s first LNRS. This new spatial tool maps London’s most valuable existing and potential areas for nature for the first time. It identifies the parts of nature most in need of help to recover, outlines the actions needed to improve them, and sets out where those actions could have the greatest impact.
What is nature recovery?
The term ‘nature recovery’ means increasing and improving nature to help reverse its decline. ‘Nature recovery’ does not necessarily aim to bring back something that existed in the past, instead it seeks to grow a richer network of nature by improving, connecting, creating and expanding it, while minimising further harm.
A collaborative approach
Successful nature recovery relies on collective action, so the LNRS has been developed through close collaboration with technical specialists, community groups, boroughs and Londoners.
It also builds on existing information and strategies, like the London Environment Strategy.
Purpose of the LNRS
The LNRS acknowledges that nature underpins everything people do. The priorities and measures set by the strategy will help to restore a healthy natural environment, which will in turn help clean our air and water and improve our mental and physical health.
The LNRS is a shared tool to help everyone in London support nature. It can be used by any organisation, group, or person. It provides a clear framework for coordinated and targeted action for nature in London, aiming to guide city-wide nature recovery that benefits the health of Londoners, biodiversity and climate resilience.
Londoners can help with nature recovery by using the LNRS to inform the way they use, manage, improve and develop land.
The six overarching priorities that apply everywhere in London are:
• Help people enjoy nature: Make it easier for all Londoners to enjoy and connect with nature, while looking after the most sensitive natural areas
• Bigger, better, more connected and more diverse: create, improve, and connect a mix of habitats to help nature thrive
• Boost wildlife populations: increase species abundance, with a focus on native and threatened species
• Help pollinators and minibeasts thrive: support a wide variety of land- and water-based invertebrates, including pollinators
• Support healthy soils: restore and minimise disturbance to soils and fungi to support all biodiversity
• Protect wildlife from invasive species: reduce and control invasive species to
protect and improve valuable habitats and species
The focused priorities and measures specify needs around:
• Urban nature: support, enhance and connect nature in more urban areas such as parks, gardens, rooftops, and other green urban spaces. This will provide a range of benefits for people, such as supporting mental and physical health, and help many species including black redstart, peregrine, swift and house martin.
• Rewilding and re-introductions: create large-scale areas for nature, to support a diverse range of species in a complementary mix of habitats and to bring back animals and plants that used to live in London, including water voles and beavers.
• Green corridors: connect nature spaces across London to help wildlife move through the city.
• Trees and woodland (including orchards): plant more trees and look after existing woodlands, orchards, and parklands. This will benefit important species including bats, butterflies and specialist woodland plants and provide cooling for Londoners.
• Waterbodies and waterways: create, improve and restore water environments to help nature thrive in rivers, streams, and lakes. This will benefit species including kingfisher, otter and European eel.
• Wetlands: create, improve and connect other wet habitats, such as marshland and reedbeds. This includes natural flood management measures, like sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) and constructed wetlands. This will benefit birds and wetland flowering plants, and build climate resilience.
• Grassland, heath and scrub: create, improve, and connect nature in grassland, heathland, scrubland, and on farms. This will help support ground nesting birds such as skylark and lapwing, a range of butterflies and harvest mice.
• ‘Micro-habitats’: increase specialist habitat areas such as deadwood and patches of sand to benefit specialist insects, fungi and bats.
The LNRS does not give any extra protection to nature sites, but it helps landowners and managers, planners and designers know how best to design, improve and manage land to help London tackle the climate and ecological emergencies through nature recovery
A rather extraordinary resource is the Local Habitat Interactive Map showing areas for action in Brent and other boroughs. LINK
It is quite complex so the video below may help. You can find your address on the map and see any proposals relating to it.
