On 7th June, the Government published, ‘The Natural Choice’, which is the first White Paper on the natural environment in more than 20 years. It aims to improve the quality of the natural environment acrossEngland, halt the decline in habitats and species, and strengthen the connection between people and nature. Links are established with the green economy by ensuring that the natural environment is incorporated into economic planning. Aspirations are high, including the aim of being the first generation to leave the environment in a better condition than we found it.
The Government will provide for the establishment of Local Nature Partnerships (LNPs) where local areas wish to bring these forward. These groupings will improve joined-up action to protect the natural environment across local agencies and organisations. They will raise local awareness about the benefits of a healthy natural environment and benefit from new government funding to assist the set-up process.
Complementing the LNPs will be a series of Nature Improvement Areas (NIAs) established by partnerships of local authorities, local communities and landowners, the private sector and conservation organisations. These will be based on a local assessment of opportunities for restoring and connecting nature on a significant scale. It is likely that LNPs and NIAs could be a useful link with Crawley’s highly successful Let’s FACE It! programme of community involvement.
The planning system will be geared to support an objective of no net loss of biodiversity. Contributing to this goal will be a system of ‘biodiversity offsetting’ where conservation activities will deliver measurable biodiversity benefits in compensation for losses. The approach will be tested in a number of pilot areas.
A top priority will be to support long-term sustainable economic growth with a new presumption in favour of sustainable development. It is planned to introduce a new ‘Local Green Areas’ designation to allow local people to protect green areas that are important to them. Alongside these initiatives, Public HealthEnglandwill be publishing practical evidence about how access to the natural environment can improve health. There will be new encouragement for learning outdoors and an increased ability for schools to do this, should they wish.
The Government will also be preparing a set of key indicators to track the progress of its White Paper measures. Reports about the state of the English environment will be published so that there is openness and transparency about the effect of this new national environmental initiative.
Councillor Bob Lanzer, Leader of Crawley Borough Council
14th June 2011