Wednesday 27 Mar 2013 @ 08:15
Natural England
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Nature Improvement Areas mark their first anniversary

England’s 12 Nature Improvement Areas (NIA) were marking their first anniversary at a Forum in London yesterday, attended by Minister Richard Benyon from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Professor Sir John Lawton and Natural England’s Chair Poul Christensen.

The Forum will enable the 12 NIA partnership groups to share details and learning on the wide-ranging work they are doing to restore nature on a landscape scale.

Minister Richard Benyon said: “These 12 Nature Improvement Areas have been successful in improving the quality of the natural environment across 500,000 hectares of land across England. This is not only reversing the decline in habitats and species, but also strengthening the connection between people and nature.”

Poul Christensen, Chair of Natural England, commented: “It’s exciting to see this new, innovative approach to nature conservation come to life – local partnerships taking the lead, working with land owners and managers to create new wildlife strongholds; better places for people to live and to enjoy; and new opportunities and new livelihoods too.”

Nature Improvement Areas were set up a year ago as part of the measures introduced in the Government’s Natural Environment White Paper. Now overseen by Natural England, the 12 NIAs are run by local partnerships of land management and conservation organisations and local authorities.

Each Nature Improvement Area partnership acts as an umbrella for a very diverse range of locally-led projects which together have received £7.5 million of core funding from Defra and Natural England. The NIAs have attracted over £40 million of additional funding from other sources, including funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.  In addition, a grant of £240,000 from Sciencewise-ERC, has been provided by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, to support public and community dialogues which will influence and enhance the management of their local NIA.

There are hundreds of local projects, and over the past year wide-ranging measures have been put in place including:

Developing habitats and ecosystems

Habitats such as species-rich grassland, fens, floodplains, blanket bogs, heathlands, marshes and parklands are being restored; woodland planting and grazing schemes have been selectively introduced; and connectivity between existing wildlife sites is being improved. Work is also underway to improve water quality and restore river habitats.

Biodiversity

Projects are in place to support priority species such as marsh fritillaries, freshwater pearl mussels, lapwings, water voles, damselflies, tree sparrows, corn buntings and chalkhill blue butterflies. Data is being collected and survey work undertaken.

Engaging people and the environment

NIAs are running school activities/trips to help children better appreciate the importance of the countryside, and placements are being created for students. Forty six new jobs have been created within the NIA teams. Existing green spaces and pathways are being enlarged and improved to enable people to have easier access.

Partnership working

The NIA’s collaborative partnership approach has linked up different and diverse sectors – from farmers to plant enthusiasts, from birdwatchers to pond creators, from field surveyors to fence suppliers. New volunteer groups are being created and, in the NIA’s first year, enthusiastic volunteers gave over 2,700 days of their time collectively to support a diverse range of projects, from survey work to re-naturalising watercourses. Expert knowledge is being shared freely: workshops have been held on butterfly recording, farmland bird surveys, habitat restoration for landowners, and soil management.

In total, NIAs now cover an area of 5,000 sq km in England with projects focused in the following areas:

For more information, visit: www.naturalengland.org.uk/nia

Notes to Editors

  1. For more information about the NIA Forum in London on Tuesday 26th March, please contact:
    Michelle Hawkins, press officer:     michelle.hawkins@naturalengland.org.uk / 0300 060 1109 

  2. Nature Improvement Areas
    Nature Improvement Areas (NIAs) were set up a year ago as part of the measures introduced in the Government’s Natural Environment White Paper. There are currently 12 NIAs which are large, discrete areas run by local partnerships of land management and conservation organisations and local authorities, overseen by Natural England. NIAs will benefit wildlife, people and economic growth by creating more and better-connected habitats and by enhancing landscapes. They will increase resilience to climate change and support the landscape’s ability to provide natural benefits like flood protection and clean water. The 12 NIAs’ diverse range of locally-led projects are involving and engaging more people with the natural environment.

  3. History of NIAs
    The 12 NIAs won a national competition as a result of the Government’s Natural Environment White Paper and were selected, not just on merit, but on the variety of landscapes that each NIA represents. The competition was called ‘The Natural Choice: securing the value of nature’. The 12 winners were selected from a total of 76 bids.  
  4. Monitoring and evaluation
    There is a rigorous monitoring and evaluation system set up for each NIA to make sure that aims and objectives are being met. The four areas against which the NIA success is being measured are: ecosystem; biodiversity; socio-economics and partnership working. Results will be published annually, with the first annual report scheduled for publication in June 2013. 
  5. Landscape scale conservation
    Landscape scale conservation is a holistic approach which aims to address biodiversity issues together with issues facing local economies, eco-tourism and agriculture – in response to the challenges of climate change. On Wednesday 27th March 2013, Natural England will co-host a conference – along  with Butterfly Conservation, the National Trust, RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts – exploring some important issues that have emerged from a major review of large scale conservation in Great Britain by Natural England and its research partners. The conference will provide a key opportunity to review the lessons learnt from our collective experience, help establish best practice and identify where opportunities lie to develop and improve our approaches to this important area of work. 
  6. Sciencewise:  www.sciencewise-erc.org.ukexternal link
    Sciencewise is a Department for Business, Innovation and Skills funded programme to bring scientists, government and the public together to explore the impact of science and technology in our lives. It enables policy makers in Government departments and agencies carry out good dialogue, to gather and disseminate good practice, have successful two-way communications with the public and other stakeholders, and to embed the principles of good dialogue into Government policies.  
  7. Press office contacts for the 12 Nature Improvement Areas
    Each NIA has issued a regional press release including case studies for their area. For more details/photos, please ask the relevant press office for a copy of their release.

 

       

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