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Our vision

A thriving natural environment

Our vision for the West of England is a thriving natural environment supporting a resilient society and economy, with interconnected landscapes benefiting nature, climate, and people. The Local Nature Recovery Strategy and Toolkit are central to this, empowering action across the region — but achieving it relies on collaboration with farmers, communities, businesses, and partners, like you.

Have a positive impact on nature, and diversify your income

This guide and the Local Nature Recovery Toolkit (LNRT) help farmers and landholders to have the biggest impact on nature with their land.

The LNRT is an interactive map that allows you to see the most relevant nature recovery measures for your location and situation, so you can figure out:

  1. What the most impactful actions for nature recovery would be on your land,
  2. How you can carry these actions out,
  3. How you can be funded for it. 

Read the guide below, or use this interactive walk-through to learn how to use the application.

Identify the most impactful actions for nature recovery on your land

The Local Nature Recovery Toolkit is an interactive map, which shows you which ‘measures’ for nature recovery are recommended as being most impactful in your specific area, helping you to contribute towards nature recovery in the West of England.

Click anywhere on the map to see the recommended measures for that area, and filter these measures to find those most relevant to you.

For example, if you are a landholder interested in creating new habitat, you can filter measures by 'farmers and landholders' and by 'habitat creation'.

Prioritise with statuses and Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) units

Once you've identified the areas and actions which you want to take, you may need to prioritise what to do first, based on the impact it will have on your land or on your bottom line.

The toolkit uses three statuses to help you prioritise measures.

Core (BNG) measures

Core (BNG) measures will be eligible for a 15% uplift in BNG units if they are within the focus areas for nature recovery that are mapped as part of the LNRS, and are recommended for the sub-area that you are in. Whether or not you are interested in BNG, these are generally the most impactful measures that can be taken for nature recovery, and involve creating, restoring or enhancing habitat.

Core measures

‘Core’ measures are those measures that will also make a significant contribution towards nature recovery, but are not eligible for an uplift in BNG units. Many of these measures are related to helping priority species, or to controlling invasive non-native species.

Supplementary measures

‘Supplementary’ measures are those that will contribute towards making the wider landscape more nature-friendly. For farmers and landholders, these are largely measures relating to more nature-friendly farming practices, such as reducing pesticide use and establishing flower-rich areas within arable land.

Discover how you can carry these actions out, and secure funding

The toolkit also gives links to best-practice guidance and funding for the recommended measures, helping you to more easily understand how to take action and how to fund it.

If you are in a ‘focus area for nature recovery’, you could even receive a higher rate for creating Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) units.

The links to funding include both public, private and third-sector funding sources for carrying out the measures. Many of these are Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) or Countryside Stewardship (CS) schemes, which will be updated as new funding codes become available. It is recommended that you speak to an advisor before carrying out measures to ensure that the measure is appropriate for your land and that you are eligible for any funding suggested.

Fields from above Image credit: Aerial Nomad

The wider picture

If you have a larger landholding or are working over a larger area, you may want to take a look at the wider picture across the region.

Using the Open Data Portal, you may access maps which show where measures related to habitat creation, restoration and enhancement are planned across the West of England.

For example, you can view all the places that woodland creation or calcareous grassland restoration will be eligible for an uplift in BNG units.

Access mapped measures

Our vision for the West of England

Our vision for the West of England is of a thriving natural environment that underpins a healthy and resilient society and economy - fully connected landscapes and a network of natural habitats and wildlife corridors, working for nature, climate and people, from our wildest places to our towns and city centres.

We have a region-wide plan to coordinate this - we are the first English Region to publish its Local Nature Recovery Strategy. And, crucially, with it, we have launched our very own Local Nature Recovery Toolkit - a vital resource that will bring our plan alive - informing and empowering action for nature and accelerating our impact right across the region.

We will only be able to do this by working in step with the region’s communities, businesses, land managers, funders and decision makers, as well as our nature conservation partners, local councils and the West of England Combined Authority.

We all need a healthy natural environment and access to nature, for our improved health and wellbeing and to ensure a sustainable future. We want everyone to have the opportunity to engage with, and benefit from, nature - wherever we live, whoever we are.