A consortium of leading environmental organisations across the North has joined forces to support nature recovery in what is the first known initiative of its kind in the UK working at such a scale.
Nature North has received £500,000 of funding between The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. The cash means the partnership can move forward with ambitious plans to ensure nature recovery can be a stimulus for future prosperity, people’s health and well-being and adaptation to climate change.
The aim is to bring together wide-ranging expertise from a range of bodies to develop key nature strategies for the whole of the north of England. The consortium includes Northumberland, Durham and Tees Valley wildlife Trusts, Northumberland National Park and the North Pennines and Northumberland Coast Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
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Also involved are the Environment Agency, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the National Trust, Natural England, the RSPB, the Rivers Trust, the Woodland Trust and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
Dr Colm Bowe, Nature North development manager, said: “We know the value of nature to people’s well-being and to business and we want to see what greater things we can achieve together, including increased investment in nature. We need greater leadership around nature recovery in the North and to see nature included in other, wider policies.
“This important work will support the vision and ambition needed to halt the decline in nature so everyone across the North can benefit. It will empower the nature sector and its local partners to deliver activities which will see the unique nature of the north of England thrive, as well as supporting new habitat creation.
“Nature plays a key role in growing the economy and providing resilience to climate change. The hope is this collaborative work will generate green jobs, boost biodiversity, enhance water quality, improve the health of the population, reduce flooding, support climate change adaptation and help attain net zero.
”The natural environment of the North is hugely diverse and distinctive. The importance of natural heritage and the positive impact it can have on local economies and its role in creating a sense of pride in people’s hometowns, cities and counties is being further recognised. The North is rich in nature and we want to utilise it to its full potential.”
North-wide projects will be developed such as the current Great North Bog programme to restore all of the remaining degraded blanket bog in the north of England uplands. Benefits provided include keeping 400m tonnes of stored carbon in the ground, avoiding emissions of 4.4m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year from degraded peat, reducing flood risk and improving water quality.
Other project ideas are:
- Green Northern Connections – connecting nature recovery to the extensive transport and energy infrastructure plans across the north of England.
- Liveable Northern Towns and Cities – the improvement and enhancement of existing green spaces in northern towns and cities. This will address inequalities in access to nature and linked impacts to health and wellbeing, changes in working practices post-pandemic and the effects of climate change. Green spaces and better access to them have been found to be a key feature of successful places and have an increasing role in town and city centre regeneration.
- Thriving Coasts and Estuaries – driving environmental benefits to reinvigorate coastal communities. Activities including salt marsh restoration, sustainable fishing initiatives and support for ecotourism to provide benefits such as recovering fish stocks, coastal flood protection and improving the visitor economy through better bathing water and greater wildlife.
- Resilient Farming North – supporting sustainable, productive and nature friendly farming in northern lowlands at a time of agricultural change. The intensification and the influence of agricultural policy has resulted in a system with higher flood risk and reduced soil quality. Farmers will be supported to further improve efficiency or productivity in a sustainable way to meet future demands on their land and exposure to global markets.
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