Have your say about our Local Nature Recovery Strategy, which aims to support our natural environment
We are lucky in Lancashire to have a diverse and spectacular environment and landscape, stretching from the uplands to the coast, including areas designated for their national and international importance for biodiversity.
However, reflecting global and national trends, Lancashire's biodiversity has been declining. We want to halt this decline and, in time, reverse biodiversity loss. We want to enhance and protect our best nature-rich sites, create new sites where there is opportunity to do so, and provide better access to natural environments that everyone can enjoy.
This is the first nature recovery strategy for Lancashire. It recognises the challenges we face in reversing this decline, but also the great opportunities we have to help nature recover, as well as the benefits of taking action, not only for our important landscapes, habitats and species, but for the people of Lancashire.
Nature can provide many benefits, including greater public enjoyment and better health, carbon capture, water and air quality improvements and flood management. A more attractive place to work, visit and do business also supports our ambition to create more economic opportunities for local people.
Whether you are a land manager, developer, planner, environmental organisation, a member of a community group or resident, the strategy will help you to identify opportunities to support nature’s recovery and to target action and funding.
It is important to note that the LNRS is not a delivery plan and does not place any obligations or restrictions on landowners. It identifies the best opportunities and locations for nature recovery and can be used to inspire people to get involved in taking action.
Have your say
We are holding a public consultation on our draft strategy from <X> to <X>. Please tell us what you think by responding to our survey <LINK TO SURVEY ON HAVE YOUR SAY PAGE>. Your feedback will help to inform our final strategy.
Most questions in the survey provide a link to the information you will need to help you respond to the question.
These webpages provide a guide to the contents of the full Draft Strategy Document <LINK>, and how to use it. We have also produced a glossary <LINK TO GLOSSARY> which you can refer to if you are unfamiliar with any words or phrases.
Contact details – if you would like to contact the Nature Recovery Team please email
Watch this quick summary video to find out about our Local Nature Recovery Strategy (INSERT VIDEO)
What is a Local Nature Recovery Strategy?
Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs) are a system of strategies for nature and environmental improvement required by law under the Environment Act 2021. Each strategy must:
- Map the most valuable existing areas for nature.
- Agree priorities for nature’s recovery.
- Map specific proposals for creating or improving habitat for nature and wider environmental goals.
Their main purpose is to identify locations where effort can be focused to create or improve habitat most likely to provide the greatest benefit for nature and the wider environment.
The goal is to drive nature’s recovery and in doing so provide wider gains, such as public access to nature, natural flood-risk management, and resilience to climate change.
The LNRS is not a delivery plan but a tool to identify the best opportunities for nature recovery. It will assist land managers, developers, planners, environmental organisations, community groups and residents to pursue opportunities to help nature recover, and to target action and funding.
Everyone can act for nature whether it be at home, in your local community, or through opportunities to manage and develop land through Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) which ensures new development provides an overall benefit to the local environment, or Agri-environment Schemes and Landscape Recovery Schemes, which help farmers manage their land in an environmentally-friendly way.
Lancashire’s LNRS will be the guiding strategy for nature recovery across the county to target potential opportunities to support nature’s recovery as well as to help inform future policies and plans.
The visions and aims for nature recovery
The strategy provides a collective vision to work together for nature recovery to protect, enhance and connect our rich biodiversity - the variety of plants and animals we have in Lancashire - and natural environment, to be enjoyed by more Lancashire residents and visitors.
It aims to:
- Halt local biodiversity loss and support thriving species populations, which can move more freely through the landscape.
- Conserve natural resources and build resilience to climate change.
- Provide wider benefits for the people of Lancashire including increased and equitable access to green and blue space.
- Reinvigorate existing partnerships and establish new ones to deliver nature recovery in the places and spaces that need it most on a landscape-scale.
Why we need a Local Nature Recovery Strategy
England is widely considered to be one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world following historic and ongoing declines. Because of this the UK government has made legally binding commitments, through the Environment Act 2021 to end these declines and for nature to recover. The Act introduced the requirement to prepare and publish nature recovery strategies that cover the whole of England to help deliver these commitments. The wider county of Lancashire which includes the unitary authorities of Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool as well as Lancashire County Council is one of those strategy areas.
Nature plays a vital role in supporting our health and wellbeing, society, and economy. It provides the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, and many of the resources crucial for our survival and quality of life. Nature also captures and stores carbon and has a vital role to play in helping us adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The main pressures on Lancashire's biodiversity have been identified as:
- Climate change
- Pollution
- Land management harmful to biodiversity
- Flood risk
- Habitat fragmentation – the breaking up of habitats into small pieces that cannot function properly on their own
- Recreational impacts
- Built development
Climate change is acknowledged as a pressure across all Lancashire's habitats. Changing weather patterns with warmer drier summers and warmer, wetter winters with more frequent extreme weather such as storms and droughts are likely to become the norm, leading to increased flooding, coastal erosion and potential for new pests and diseases which in turn impact on nature and people.
Human activity such as changes in land use, increased development and growing towns and cities, recreation, and pollution result in areas of land being broken up into smaller sections and habitat loss.
The strategy is informed by current successes and opportunities for new projects to expand, enhance, and reconnect our key habitats for broader benefits. In many cases these build on existing work already being delivered by many organisations across Lancashire. These include the Biological Heritage Sites Project which monitors and aims to conserve Lancashire’s most important Local Wildlife sites, Agri-Environment schemes and the Farming in Protected Landscapes Programme which help farmers to deliver nature recovery, natural flood risk management, and initiatives delivered through the NHS and by local communities to involve more people in nature to support their health and wellbeing.
LNRS documents
- Document 1
- Document 2
- Document 3