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The Local Nature Recovery Strategy and Toolkit

Enabling you to take action for nature

The Local Nature Recovery Strategy and Toolkit is a collaborative effort to help people and organisations within the Mayoral Combined Authority and North Somerset take the most effective action for nature. Whether you're a concerned resident, a farmer, a conservationist, or a policymaker, you'll find valuable resources to support your efforts in restoring and protecting precious habitats and wildlife in your local area and beyond.

The strategy sets local priorities for nature recovery and maps ‘focus areas’ where action to help nature will have the biggest impact, which will help to better target funding and resources for nature recovery. And our toolkit has been designed to help you deliver these priorities.

It is important to note that the strategy will not force landowners or managers to make any changes, nor prevent any actions such as development. The strategy and toolkit aim to encourage and inform action, and to better target funding and investment.

Zoomed out map of the region with some indistinct areas highlighted

Discover measures relevant to your area with the interactive map

The interactive online toolkit (opens in new tab) allows you to see the most relevant measures (actions) for your location and situation. Click anywhere on the map to see the recommended measures for that location, and filter these measures to find those most relevant to you. A text-based alternative (opens in new tab) is also available.

For example, if you are a landholder interested in creating new habitat, you can filter measures by 'farmers and landholders' and by 'habitat creation'. Or, if you are a resident who wants to know how they can make their garden more nature-friendly, you can filter measures by 'residents and communities' and 'gardens'.

The toolkit works the same whether you are inside or outside a focus area for nature recovery.

Access the toolkit

FAQs

Learn more about the strategy and toolkit

The strategy and toolkit consist of a set of priorities for nature recovery, which are the most important outcomes for nature recovery in the region. Each of these priorities has a number of measures associated with it, which are the actions that could be taken to achieve the priority. Alongside a description of the state of nature locally, the priorities and measures form the ‘Statement of Biodiversity Priorities’.

These measures are then mapped to the locations in the Mayoral Combined Authority and North Somerset where they would have the biggest impact and/or are most feasible. These are the ‘mapped measures’.

The mapped measures together form the ‘focus areas for nature recovery’, which show where action for nature recovery will be most impactful.

The ‘Local Habitat Map’ shows the areas already of importance for biodiversity and the focus areas for nature recovery.

Our online toolkit allows you to easily interact with the priorities, measures and focus areas for nature recovery. This will help you understand what the most impactful actions to take for nature locally are, and find guidance and funding to carry out these ‘measures’.

If you want to understand how you can best help nature where you are, we recommend using the online toolkit. The Local Habitat Map and mapped measures provide a more ‘strategic’ way of understanding the same information.

Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) are ‘a new, England-wide system of spatial strategies that establish priorities and map proposals for specific actions to drive nature’s recovery and provide wider environmental benefits’, as set out by Government in the Environment Act 2022.

As well as having a role in the planning system and directing public funding for nature recovery, LNRSs will inform the delivery of ‘nature-based solutions’ for outcomes such as flood management, carbon sequestration and improvements in water quality.

There is a single LNRS covering the unitary authority areas of Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and North Somerset. We have referred to our LNRS as the ‘Local Nature Recovery Toolkit’.

In total, there will be around 50 LNRSs, covering the whole of England. Once completed and joined together, the aim is that they will support delivery of a national Nature Recovery Network.

Nature is collapsing at an alarming and unprecedented rate. Globally we have lost 60% of wild vertebrates and up to 76% of insects since 1970. And in the West of England, numbers of once common birds like swifts and cuckoos have dropped by more than 96%.

The decline in nature matters to all of us because of the vital role that wildlife and nature play in supporting our wellbeing, society and economy. Nature provides the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, and many of the resources we need to survive and maintain our quality of life.

Reversing this decline will require a coordinated effort across society, as well as an improved understanding of the most important actions for nature recovery and how these can be delivered.

The Local Nature Recovery Strategy identifies desired outcomes for nature recovery in the region, including those considered to be ‘priorities’, and potential measures to deliver them. Ultimately, we see the Toolkit as being the guiding vision for nature in the region, enabling collective effort to be focused where it will have most benefit.

The Mayoral Combined Authority has led the production of the Nature Recovery Strategy and Toolkit. Bath & North East Somerset Council, Bristol Council, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset Council and Natural England are all ‘Supporting Authorities’ for the production of the toolkit and have approved its publication.
Governance and management mechanisms were put in place to ensure representation from a broad range of stakeholder interests, including local government, environmental NGOs, regulatory bodies, utility companies, farming and landholders, and the healthcare sector.
The priorities, measures and focus areas for nature recovery were developed after many conversations with people across the region, including communities, businesses, farmers and landowners.
A public consultation was conducted on a draft version of the Toolkit in Spring 2024, and the Mayoral Combined Authority have used the feedback from the consultation to update the toolkit for publication.
Want to know more? Read more information on how the priorities and measures for nature recovery were developed (pdf, 400kb).

The public consultation on the draft Local Nature Recovery Toolkit was conduced from March to May 2024.

Through the consultation, you the public provided thoughts on the identified priorities for nature recovery in the Mayoral Combined Authority and the mapped 'focus areas' for nature recovery.

To produce the Consultation Draft, the Mayoral Combined Authority collated and analysed existing knowledge on the state of nature in the West of England to identify areas of particular importance for biodiversity and opportunities to restore nature. This included using existing strategies and plans such as the Forest of Avon Plan, West of England Nature Recovery Network, Bristol Avon Catchment Plan, and Local Authorities' Green Infrastructure Strategies, among many others.

As well as working closely with numerous stakeholders (including through the West of England Nature Partnership and Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership), the Mayoral Combined Authority engaged with communities, businesses, and farmers and landholders to help shape the development of the LNRT. This included:

A survey aimed at communities and residents in the West of England, which closed in September.
A 'call for evidence' for existing information and research on people's priorities for nature recovery in the region, which we are in the process of analysing.
A survey asking farmers and landholders for their thoughts on priorities for nature and how the LNRS could be made most useful for them.
Three in-person events where we have spoken to farmers and landholders, followed by an in-person workshop in January 2024.
A business-focused workshop and several 1-to-1 conversations with businesses across the region.

Mapped measures

The measures relating to creating new habitat or enhancing existing habitat have been mapped to certain locations where they would be most appropriate and impactful. The resulting map layers, referred to as 'mapped measures', show where these measures will be most beneficial.

When combined, the 'mapped measures' make up the 'focus areas for nature recovery'. The mapped measures also show where an uplift in the value of Biodiversity Net Gain units could be received for different habitats.

In many locations, there will be more than one mapped measure. This indicates that any of these mapped measures would be particularly beneficial in that location. For example, creation of woodland, wood pasture and hedgerows would all help to connect existing wooded habitats.

If you are in an area without a mapped measure, please refer to the toolkit for guidance on the most impactful actions where you are. Note that measures are not mapped for nationally-designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). This is because these sites have their own bespoke management plans.

Find out more information on which measures are included in each map layer (pdf, 375kb)

Open map in a new window.

Statement of Biodiversity Priorities

The Statement of Biodiversity Priorities consists of a description of the state of nature locally, the priorities and potential measures for nature recovery, and a table of priority species.

We would recommend using the toolkit to view the priorities, measures and species most relevant to your area. Alternatively, you can view all of the priorities and measures on our dedicated webpage.

We have also included some information on how the priorities and measures were developed, and some appendices with further information on the state of nature.

View the priorities, measures and species using the toolkit
Statement of Biodiversity Priorities - Part I, Area Description (pdf, 2mb)
Statement of Biodiversity Priorities - Part 2, Priorities and Measures
Statement of Biodiversity Priorities - How the priorities and measures were developed. PDF, 0.4MB.

Explore the local habitat map

The Local Habitat Map provides a useful overview of the LNRS by showing:

Areas that are already of importance to biodiversity. These are sites that nationally designated for their value to nature (SSSIs, SACs and SPAs), are designated as Local Nature Reserves, are locally designated as ‘Sites of Nature Conservation Interest’ (SNCIs), and/or are irreplaceable habitat including ancient woodland.
Focus areas for nature recovery , where action to recover nature will have the biggest impact and is most feasible. These have been mapped to reflect the priorities for nature recovery, and include all of the mapped measures for nature recovery. The focus areas for nature recovery are referred to as ‘areas that could become of particular importance’ in regulation.

The mapped focus areas for nature recovery do not include nationally designated SSSIs, as they have their own bespoke management plans. They do include many locally designated sites, the value to nature of which could be improved.