Posted on Friday 30th June 2023
Simon Tagg
Work is starting to develop a new long-term strategy to recover, protect and enhance Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent’s nature and wildlife as part of a national initiative.
Staffordshire County Council is one of 48 councils appointed nationally under the Environment Act 2021 and announced by DEFRA today, Friday June 30, to lead the creation of Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS).
The county council will work closely with local authorities, partner organisations and communities to identify priority areas for action.
LNRS are one of the government’s flagship new nature recovery measures which will make an important contribution to ensuring national environmental targets and objectives are met as well as local environmental priorities.
In February 2022 the county council made a nature recovery declaration – recognising the crisis facing our wild habitats and species and marking its commitment to securing their recovery.
Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet member for environment, infrastructure and climate change Simon Tagg said:
It is vital that we act now to recover and protect wildlife and nature and halt the decline of biodiversity in Staffordshire, playing our part in the UK-wide effort.
We are fortunate to have a wonderful variety of wildlife, from red deer to red-tailed bumblebees, and amazing nature right on our doorstep. Nature is essential to human life and brings many benefits, such as providing clean water, reducing floods and pollinating our food.
Our new role announced today goes hand in hand with our wider commitment to tackle climate change and will help ensure our countryside can recover and thrive.
We are now looking forward to working with partners across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent to shape a vision which will allow future generations to continue to benefit from and enjoy nature.”
Natural England chair Tony Juniper said:
Nature recovery must be locally led and delivered at scale if we are to create more, better, connected nature - rich habitats that enable wildlife to recover, move and thrive. Through these initiatives that support a growing national Nature Recovery Network, we can create natural landscapes which will capture carbon, mitigate extreme weather events and protect the health of people and wildlife.
Natural England is proud to be supporting local authorities and their partners to develop Local Nature Recovery Strategies that meet the needs of local people and the landscapes in which they live.”
In December last year delegates from organisations across the county gathered at the headquarters of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust at Wolseley Bridge near Stafford to begin to plan the development of the strategy. Organisations included Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, Natural England, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, district and borough councils, the National Farmers Union, RSPB, Environment Agency, Staffordshire University, voluntary sector bodies and others.