We’ve finished preparing Oxfordshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy - thank you to everyone who helped shape this united vision for nature! But what does it mean to you?
Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) are a set of new national strategies designed to target priority actions that help nature in locations where they are most needed. Local Nature Recovery Strategies are expected to help join up national efforts to reverse the decline of biodiversity. At Wild Oxfordshire, we have been working closely with Oxfordshire County Council and a range of partners over the last two years to collaboratively create Oxfordshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy.
We were so pleased to attend the launch event for Oxfordshire’s LNRS in November, a shared message resonated throughout: that this is “a document of hope and a plan of action.”
As Richard Benwell, Chief Executive at Wildlife and Countryside Link, reminded us, the Strategy embodies a spirit of hope, a belief that nature’s recovery is possible when a whole community works together.
We started the day hearing from Cllr Liz Leffman, Leader of Oxfordshire County Council, who emphasised that nature recovery is not just an environmental ambition but an economic and social imperative. She also spotlighted the willingness of local farmers who have already embraced this approach, through farmer clusters and shared learning.
Her message was unequivocal: “nature should be a lived reality for all of us”.
Attendees then learnt about the four key elements of the LNRS from Chloë Edwards, Oxfordshire’s LNRS Project Manager. These are:
The LNRS is more than a plan, it is a commitment to restoring nature for everyone in Oxfordshire. We all need to work together to take the next steps and ensure the Strategy is turned into nature recovery on the ground. So next up, a panel featuring Estelle Bailey, Kerry ten Kate, Tim Coates and Katherine Chesson explored what successful delivery could look like, and how to solve potential blockers.
DEFRA has asked Oxfordshire to create a pipeline of strategic projects to help deliver the LNRS. So after lunch, attendees took part in breakout discussions exploring:
We know that there are very many people across Oxfordshire already taking action for nature, including community groups, parish & town councils, farmers, schools, businesses, and landowners of all types.
At the launch event we heard from a range of speakers demonstrating how they are working with others to help nature’s recovery. These included Katie Ramsey from the National Trust, Chloe Timberlake from BBOWT discussing the Bernwood & Ray Farmer cluster, Julian Gold with a farmer’s viewpoint, and particularly moving words from Tila Rodriguez-Past on the importance of community gardens, drawing on her own experiences of Bridge Street Community Garden, Banbury.
The Local Nature Recovery Strategy is a brilliant tool which we can all use to help guide us, but how can we use it? You can use the LNRS to help inform your decisions about nature recovery actions, and we have created User Guides to help people with this. The recommendations in the LNRS are flexible; you can use local knowledge, ground truthing, and land manager preferences to modify the recommendations and choose the actions that work best for you.
We know that sometimes people will want more guidance and support than can be provided by an online tool, so Wild Oxfordshire will continue to bring people together to support them in the development and delivery of local nature recovery projects, so that together we can achieve nature recovery in Oxfordshire.
Access Oxfordshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy here
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