Wildflowers growing in a field in North Yorkshire. Credit: Getty Images.
Nature recovery needs action at every scale.
We all need to be working together to create the bigger, better and more joined-up network of habitats that nature needs to recover.
From the parish resident planting wildflowers for pollinators, to the farmer creating new habitats on their land. Or the local government planner thinking about how to ensure sustainable development and the water company looking to improve the water quality of a river catchment. We all have a part to play.
That is exactly why Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs) were created.
Not to sit on a shelf, but to be community-owned plans for environmental improvement that are embedded in the planning system, and that carry weight in public body decision-making. They apply across places and sectors, from neighbourhoods and fields all the way up to counties and catchments.
On 30 September, we announced that Government is supporting local areas to deliver their LNRS through a £26 million investment over the next three years.
This money will support the strategy owners, called ‘responsible authorities’, to keep working with their local partners and communities to better target nature recovery across the country.
In this post, we’ll look at how responsible authorities are already using their LNRSs to help communities and organisations direct efforts where they’ll have the most impact.
Supporting national and local nature priorities, and driving opportunities
LNRSs are developed by responsible authorities in partnership with communities, businesses, land managers, planners and environmental organisations.
They provide a shared blueprint for where action will have the greatest local impact on nature, while contributing to our national environmental priorities.
With most LNRSs now published, we can clearly see the priorities that each community is working on to address their environmental challenges, and the wider national impact their actions will make when combined.
For example, restoring wetlands and floodplains can reduce flood risk for homes and businesses downstream. Creating green corridors and urban tree canopy can cool city streets and protect people's health during heatwaves. Improving soil health and riverside vegetation can filter pollutants and improve water quality in local rivers.
By rooting priorities in local conditions, LNRSs ensure that action for nature delivers tangible benefits for the people who live alongside it, with knock-on benefits that reach much further afield.
Examples of local, grassroots change
In Shropshire, a parish community has been leading efforts to restore meadows in its local area and are already seeing amazing results, demonstrating the difference that can be made when people come together around a shared vision for nature and place. To help build on this momentum, partners across Shropshire have collaborated to create a practical workbook to support town and parish councils in delivering the Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin LNRS in their own communities.
Farmers too are finding LNRSs useful for guiding land management decisions. In Hull and East Yorkshire, the local nature partnership has developed tools to help align Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier actions with LNRS priorities, making it easier to deliver joined-up outcomes for nature and farm profitability.
Meanwhile across the country, responsible authorities and their partners are exploring ways to support community-led delivery. In the West of England, for example, the new Community Nature Fund is helping communities and local organisations take practical action that contributes to the priorities identified through the region's LNRS.
Whilst in the West Midlands, the new Nature Investment Hub is helping local businesses and investors to connect with impactful projects that might otherwise struggle to get off the ground. Projects on the Hub link directly back to the West Midlands LNRS, showcasing how the project will deliver shared priorities for the area.
Connecting local actions into landscape-scale change
When communities, land managers, businesses, planners and public bodies work from a shared understanding of local priorities, their individual actions can begin to connect.
Small habitat improvements, new wildlife-friendly management practices and local restoration projects can collectively create larger, more resilient networks of nature. LNRSs are designed to support large-scale change like this, by highlighting opportunities where partners could join-up efforts to result in landscape-scale change.
We are already seeing examples of this happening.
The first trees have been planted at Pucklechurch Wood in South Gloucestershire – a 30-hectare site that will form part of the Western Forest, the UK's first new national forest in over three decades.
Stretching from the Cotswolds to the Mendips, the Western Forest aims to plant 20 million trees by 2050, bringing together councils, parish communities, the Forest of Avon and local volunteers in exactly the kind of coordinated, place-based delivery that LNRSs are designed to enable.
LNRSs can also support landscape-scale change in urban areas. In March 2026, a partnership was formed in London to drive forward a new regional park, designed to connect green and blue spaces across west London into a more continuous landscape.
The Mayor of London, responsible authority for London’s LNRS, sits on that partnership. Their LNRS aligns with and supports the new regional park, which will implement one of the green corridors identified in the LNRS.
The regional park will improve biodiversity, climate resilience, access, and long-term economic growth in the area, contributing to many of the priorities and measures set out in the LNRS.
Local leadership for local delivery
The successful development of LNRSs has been a collaborative effort. Responsible authorities have worked closely with local communities, environmental organisations, farmers, businesses, planners and many other partners to create strategies that reflect local priorities. They continue to bring these groups together to turn the proposals set out in LNRSs into action on the ground.
Government’s role now is to help make that local delivery easier, better connected and more impactful.
Through a feedback loop of information from local areas on how delivery is going, we’re able to better understand what is working well, where more support is needed, and where we can make better use of national policy measures to direct investment and action where it can have the most impact.
We’re supporting responsible authorities to provide strategic leadership for environmental delivery and coordinate action in line with their LNRS, and are providing £26 million over the next three years to help them take on this role. Defra bodies, such as the Environment Agency, Forestry Commission and Natural England, are also providing technical expertise, data and delivery support to help translate plans into practical action.
How to play your part in nature’s recovery
Nature recovery clearly depends on collective action.
Every action matters. And when those actions are guided by a shared vision, they have the potential to add up to something much bigger: a healthier, more resilient and more connected natural environment for generations to come.
Are you looking to support nature in your community? Your local LNRS can help identify where your efforts will make the biggest difference.
To find out more about LNRSs or learn how you can contribute to nature recovery in your area, visit GOV.UK or find your local strategy.
seen at 11:30, 1 October in Environment.