The Devon Local Nature Partnership has written to parish and town councils with information about the LNRS and what you can do to get involved.

Dear Parish and Town Councils

Devon County Council’s Environment Team is currently developing the Devon Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS). As part of this team we have been tasked with informing communities across the county of this upcoming strategy and how it might influence future work and decision making.

To deliver this important piece of work, DCC is reaching out to all sectors via the Local Nature Partnership (LNP).  You can visit the LNP website to learn more, see the latest delivery plan and watch a 3 minute video to learn more about the LNRS

How will the LNRS affect Parish and Town Councils?

With a statutory duty to conserve wildlife as set out in the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act (NERC) 2006, one of the P&TCs priorities should be to take action for wildlife showing they have regard for conserving biodiversity through their policy and decision making.

The LNRS will provide guidance for wildlife recovery across Devon, with priority species and habitats clearly outlined. For P&TC this will provide a framework for future policy making, planning and development.

What is the LNRS?

Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) are a new approach to setting priorities for nature at a local level across England. They are a statutory requirement, defined in Sections 104 to 106 of the Environment Act 2021.

Defra officially launched LNRS on 30^th June 2023, confirming funding and published regulations and guidance documents for all Responsible Authorities.  In Devon the Responsible Authority is Devon County Council, with Supporting Authorities including: East Devon, Teignbridge, South Hams, West Devon, Torridge, North Devon, Exeter City, Mid Devon, Torbay, Plymouth, Dartmoor National Park, Exmoor National Park, and Natural England.

Defra Guidance requires us to identify Threatened and Near Threatened species and locally significant species, this will result in a Devon LNRS species priorities list.  In Devon, partners have agreed that the LNRS should include the marine environment and therefore will extend beyond low water.

Purpose of the LNRS is to:

• Help to guide funding (Biodiversity Net Gain, Environmental Land Management)
• Help guide Local Plans
• Help to achieve national environmental targets at the local level including a national nature recovery network (a network of wildlife rich spaces)
• Provide a framework for prioritised action which will help the public, private and voluntary sectors work more effectively together for nature’s recovery and enable collective effort to be focussed where it will have most benefit.
• The Devon wide LNRS will help to achieve national environmental targets and also inform more detailed Nature Plans produced for different geographies in Devon e.g. districts and unitaries, AONBs, National Parks, Parishes.

 When will the LNRS be launched?

The Devon LNRS will be launched in summer of 2024, it will be accessible to everyone via a website.

What can P&TC do?

• At this stage we are asking for comments to hear your thoughts about how this Strategy could benefit you and nature; please complete our questionnaire to share your thoughts. We would really appreciate any time you can spare on filling this out.
• We are looking to form a small focus group to help us ensure the information produced on the LNPS website is clear, easy to navigate and sufficient to guide community decisions. If you would be interested in helping out with this task please email Jo Pullin (devonnature@gmail.com) or Bridie Kennerley (bridie.devonnature@gmail.com)

For any general queries regarding the LNRS please email: LNRS@devon.gov.uk

We need the Strategy to be both inclusive and impactful, so everyone in Devon must be on board and engaged. Together we can reverse the decline in biodiversity, increase our resilience, and create an environment whereby both people and nature thrive

Kind regards

Jo Pullin
(On behalf of DCC, LNP – WAD)
jo.devonnature@gmail.com

Our Connect Event in December focused on the Local Nature Recovery Strategy and how communities can support nature recovery through the management of amenity green spaces. Catch up on that event here.