We are responsible for preparing a Local Nature Recovery Strategy for North Yorkshire and York.
Farmers, landowners and land managers are being asked to share their views on how nature can be encouraged alongside their business, in the latest in a series of events.
Register a place on our upcoming event:
View the Local Nature Recovery Strategy update video for November 2024:
After a series of thematic workshops, with contributions from 120 stakeholders from a range of organisations, 107 opportunities arose. These were considered by a panel using a scoring system which then devised the top priorities:
The Local Nature Recovery Strategy will consider land at a county scale and will identify locations to improve nature and provide other benefits, such as capturing carbon from the atmosphere, flood regulation and access to nature-rich spaces where this is most needed for health and wellbeing.
The Local Nature Recovery Strategy will:
As required by law under the Environment Act 2021, every county in England will produce a Local Nature Recovery Strategy. These strategies will work together to restore, create and connect habitats across England.
Decisions about where and how to recover nature will be reached through consultation with a wide range of people and groups in each county, from ecologists and community groups to health professionals and local businesses. In North Yorkshire and York, we want everyone to have their say.
Local Nature Recovery Strategies will help to direct several new funding streams, including funding for farmers and land managers. They will also link with Biodiversity Net Gain, which is a new planning requirement to ensure habitat for wildlife is left in a better state than it was before the development process began.
Read more about Local Nature Recovery Strategies
Watch Defra's video with more information on Local Nature Recovery Strategies
Watch the council's LNRS Introductory webinar for more information
North Yorkshire and York support an amazing diversity of landscapes and wildlife, from ancient woodland and chalk hills to large expanses of open moorland and beautiful historic parklands. North Yorkshire is also home to five protected landscapes: Forest of Bowland National Landscape, Yorkshire Dales National Park, Nidderdale National Landscape, Howardian Hills National Landscape and North York Moors National Park. Each has internationally important habitats and nationally important landscapes. This impressive nature makes North Yorkshire and York a highly attractive place for people to live, for businesses to locate, and to encourage sustainable tourism.
Nature underpins our lives - from street trees to rivers, nature in North Yorkshire and York provides us with food, water, captures carbon from the atmosphere and provides us with clean air. Walks in nature help us stay physically and mentally healthy, and urban and rural wildlife sightings bring joy to many people.
However, we've witnessed a significant decline in the health of North Yorkshire and York’s natural environment. Despite some successes, the populations of most of our species have been in continuous decline for decades, mainly linked to the loss of the habitats they rely upon. These declines are due to complex factors, including pollution, pesticide use, disease, development, loss of traditional land management practices and climate change.
The Local Nature Recovery Strategy for North Yorkshire and York will help us reverse this nature loss by setting out where and how to manage land and water to create a network of nature-rich sites that are bigger, better managed and more joined-up across the county and across the country.
The government has asked us and the City of York Council to work together, as both local authority areas share a common landscape and river network. Working across administrative boundaries will help nature to recover more effectively. We are also partnering with the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors National Park Authorities and the other organisations in the advisory group (referred to below).
East Riding of Yorkshire Council will be responsible for preparing a Local Nature Recovery Strategy for East Yorkshire and Hull, and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority will be responsible for preparing a Local Nature Recovery Strategy for West Yorkshire.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is providing funding to support the development of Local Nature Recovery Strategies. North Yorkshire Council, City of York Council and other local organisations are also supporting with local knowledge and information to support the strategy. We will work closely with people and groups across the county to develop the strategy. We will also work closely with North Yorkshire’s protected landscapes and Natural England.
Our aim is to submit the strategy for statutory public consultation during Spring 2025, with the published version of the strategy ready for September 2025.
The development of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy for North Yorkshire and York is being overseen by a steering group with representatives of key partners and stakeholders. The advisory group (steering group) is chaired by our project manager for the strategy.
The following organisations are members of the advisory group:
A range of organisations are already helping to protect nature. The North Yorkshire and York Local Nature Partnership is promoting the value of nature to all and highlighting how nature can help address issues and create opportunities in the business and health sectors. Environmental organisations like the river catchment partnerships, White Rose Forest and Yorkshire Peat Partnership are working with land managers to explore how habitat creation can lead to additional benefits, including financial income, reducing the risk of flooding, better air and water quality and capturing carbon from the atmosphere. These are all supported by many people working on local projects on the ground to help nature recover.
The Local Nature Recovery Strategy will work to collect all this knowledge and activity to understand where we need to focus our efforts in the coming months and years.
The North Yorkshire and York Local Nature Recovery Strategy will describe and map nature in our region, set out priorities for nature and wider benefits at county and local level.
The strategy will be shaped by organisations, groups and individuals and this will help us all to understand what we can do together to help nature to flourish in North Yorkshire and York.
We will share ways you can get involved on this page, as the strategy is developed.
Inspire us! If you have stories, photos or case studies about supporting nature, wildlife and biodiversity, we’d love to hear what you’ve been up to. If you'd like to share something or sign up for updates, please contact us.