What is a Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS)?

Following the delivery of a successful webinar produced in collaboration between Biological Recording Company and Map Impact, this is the first in a 3-part blog series providing a straightforward understanding of Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS). We are grateful to Megan Lindeman, Technical Support Officer from Westmorland and Furness Council, who participated in the webinar as an impartial guest speaker.

Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) are a UK government initiative which aims to identify and prioritise opportunities for improvements to biodiversity across England. 48 LNRS areas have been established in England and a responsible authority assigned to each. These authorities must now produce a report and accompanying map by March 2025. The LNRS should detail the best existing areas for nature and proposals for improving habitats and meeting wider environmental goals in their LNRS area. A pilot programme has already taken place in five of the 48 areas, and this process informed the development of the guidelines issued to the LNRS responsible authorities.

Megan Lindeman expects that the LNRS will be a valuable decision-making tool which will help to guide and inform development, land management, and green finance. “It will give consideration to wider environmental, economic and social benefits and the key part is the first word in it: Local. It will be locally led, it will be evidence-based and it will be collaboratively produced.”

While the purpose of the LNRS is to identify opportunities for nature recovery within the LNRS area, it does not constitute a definitive action plan, nor determine which opportunities will be pursued. Megan explains “We are legally required to prepare an LNRS but we are not, at this stage, required to deliver the priorities and measures that we identify. So, if your area of land appears within the LNRS mapping and is identified as having potential for delivering a particular nature recovery measure it doesn’t mean that you have to do it and it doesn’t mean you cannot continue to use that land for production or forestry or other uses.”

The LNRS comprises of two complementary pieces of work; a map of the existing habitats and a written list identifying opportunities for improvements to and protections for the habitats. An accurate and detailed map is vital to understanding how the opportunities and priorities identified in the report can be enacted in the field. High quality data will be an essential tool for all LNRS areas while they assess which locations and potential improvements to make a priority for action towards nature recovery.

Map Impact’s BiodiversityView provides a unique national dataset of assessed habitat conditions across the whole of England at 50m intervals.  It is ideally suited to provide regional coverage of landscape areas, such as required by LNRS work, or early baseline site assessments required under BNG development planning requirements, where ‘triage, triage, triage’ is the best practice message coming from Natural England and the Planning Advisory Service.

In parts 2 and 3 of this blog series we will discuss the importance of data, and the challenges in delivering and developing a successful LNRS. Local Authority teams are welcome to request a demonstration of BiodiversityView across their own specific area by e-mailing info@mapimpact.io