Nature Recovery Networks

We have torn holes in the web of life that supports us

The UK today is a human dominated landscape. Most original habitats have gone, and natural ecosystems are fragmented. Our nature reserves are precious havens of biodiversity where wildlife thrives. But in the wider countryside, woods, meadows, ponds and other places with lots of wild plants and animals are getting smaller, fewer, more polluted, and more cut-off from each other. Most of our plants and animals are declining. One in ten face extinction.

Given the pressure on land for food, roads and housing, this is not surprising. However, our separation from nature has led to other unintended effects. We have an epidemic of chronic disease, and the worst obesity problem in Europe. Air quality limits are regularly breached. Floods are becoming more common and more destructive. Damage to farmland soils costs us around £1bn a year.

Nature is our life support 

Our lifestyles overlook the value of natural systems – even though nature underpins everything we do. We need healthy soil to grow food in, clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and green space for exercise and relaxation. No one disputes this – yet our farming and planning systems have often taken us in the opposite direction.

Sir John Lawton, who led a Government review of England’s wildlife sites, said: “There is compelling evidence that they are generally too small and too isolated. We need more space for nature.” Conservation work by charities, farmers, community groups and individuals shows that wildlife can be brought back when the will and the space is there. Previous generations lived with clouds of butterflies, snowstorms of moths, and hedges shaking with dense flocks of farmland birds. These are biological riches denied to younger people. We need a commitment from the government to make restoring nature a priority, and bring our precious wildlife back.

Wildlife and natural systems joined up, and working, everywhere

A Nature Recovery Network is a joined-up system of places important for wild plants and animals, on land and at sea. It allows plants, animals, seeds, nutrients and water to move from place to place and enables the natural world to adapt to change. It provides plants and animals with places to live, feed and breed.

Protected wildlife sites alone cannot meet the needs of wildlife or our society. To achieve that, we also need to provide effective protection for the many other places in the landscape that are still rich in wildlife despite the many pressures they face, and join wildlife rich places together.

Building a Nature Recovery Network requires detailed information: where wildlife is abundant or scarce; where it should be in future; which places are most important; and where there is opportunity for positive change.

There are opportunities across our landscape to join habitats together, both on a grand scale and a small one.

Our roads

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Major roads are impassable barriers for many species

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Green bridges could link up habitats so wildlife can travel between them

Our homes

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Many streets are now sealed under tarmac and concrete

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Plants and trees improve the street atmosphere, absorb atmospheric pollution, make homes for wildlife, and help reduce flooding

Our cities

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The sheer mass of concrete in cities heats them up in the summer and provides little space for wildlife

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Green roofs and spaces absorb heavy rain, cool things down, and provide habitats for plants, insects, mammals and birds

Our public spaces

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Two-thirds of amenity grassland is close-mown

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Research demonstrates the benefits of meadows to people and wildlife

Our farmland

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Grazing on riverbanks erodes soils and destroys water vole habitat

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Simply fencing off the stream bank allows the plants to return and stabilises the bank