What is a

Local Nature
Recovery Strategy?

Imagine a tool that explains where nature recovery would bring the most benefit to wildlife and people. That tool is the LNRS, one of several measures in the Environment Act 2021 that aim to halt the decline of nature in England.

Using local insights to decide important areas for nature recovery across the whole country has never been done before, and it’s happening now. 48 local government organisations, known as Responsible Authorities, have been tasked with mapping their area and collaborating with local representatives of both people and wildlife, to create a list of priorities by summer 2025.

Both Norfolk and Suffolk County Councils have been named as Responsible Authorities and are working together via the Norfolk & Suffolk Nature Recovery Partnership, in recognition that some of our most important wildlife-rich spaces are shared by both counties.

You can learn more about how our Local Nature Recovery Strategies will be delivered by visiting the websites below:

Get involved with creating your Local Nature Recovery Strategy

Why Recover Nature?

Here in Norfolk and Suffolk we have a higher number of important habitats than the national average, but 75% of these are isolated patches that need connecting. Creating new connections will help the wildlife within these habitats survive changes to local weather patterns caused by our warming planet, and the effects of ongoing human population growth.

The latest data show that wildlife in England is struggling to survive change, with population numbers declining across all major groups including:

43%
of birds

31%
of amphibians
and reptiles

28%
of fungi
and lichen.

That’s why work to restore habitats and make new connections between them is called nature “recovery”; changing how we use and manage land to help wildlife population size, distribution and health.
‍

‍Benefits of Nature Recovery
‍The habitats and species of Norfolk and Suffolk give the area a unique beauty enjoyed by residents and tourists, but they are also essential to our daily lives in ways we can’t easily see, including: ‍

Pollinating our food crops
Filtering air and water
Keeping soils healthy
Improving drainage to reduce flooding

Cooling urban areas
Supporting physical and mental wellbeing
Capturing carbon

Our economy and society thrive when nature is strong and healthy. So how do we make this happen?

“Bigger, better, more
and more joined-up"

‍The Lawton Report

Creating a National Nature Recovery Network

‍A group of high quality, well-connected habitats is called a nature network. The goal of nature recovery work is to create new networks or make existing networks bigger, more connected and resilient to change.

A diagram showing the differences between a fragmented landscape and a well connected landscape.

For farmers and land managers this could involve:

Planting new woodlands and hedgerows
Creating meadows and heathlands
Creating wetlands in our floodplains and at the coast

For communities, households and individuals this could involve:

Planting a small number of trees or short hedgerows
Dedicating part of a park, school-ground or public space for wildlife
Creating a pollinator-friendly garden and/or ‘hedgehog highways’.
Volunteering with conservation groups or nature recovery projects

For businesses and employers this could involve:

Investing in nature recovery projects to offset damage that is hard to avoid
Improving biodiversity on property they own or manage
Arranging volunteer days to support nature and staff wellbeing

For Local Authorities this could involve:

Adding specific policies about nature to their Local Plan
Providing funding to support nature recovery projects
Improving biodiversity on the Public Rights of Way Network

Learn more about national nature recovery on the government website

Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS)

Why Recover Nature?

Creating a National Nature Recovery Network