A Green Recovery for Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire

A Green Recovery for Berkshire, Buckingha mshire and Oxfordshire

bbowt.org.uk

What is green recovery?

Green recovery is a widely adopted term for a proposed package of environmental, regulatory, and fiscal reforms to recover prosperity after the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides an unmissable opportunity to invest in the recovery of our natural environment following decades of degradation.

Human impact on the environment has created a global nature and climate crisis, the impacts of which are being felt on our own doorsteps.

The UK is now one of the most nature depleted countries in the world.

Broken ecosystems pose direct economic risks, including vulnerability to flooding, heat waves, drought, crop failure and ill health from air and water pollution. A truly green recovery would address these developing risks, both curing the current crisis and preventing future ones.

There are three main components to set us on the path to a green recovery:

Investment in the low-carbon economy

What can a green recovery deliver?

At the heart of a green recovery is the need to use nature-based solutions to deliver resilient businesses, jobs and landscapes.

Investment in natural capital

Greener law and policy

Why is a green recovery needed?

A thriving natural environment is one of the best defences against climate change.

From woodlands storing carbon, to floodplains protecting urban areas from floods, nature has the solutions to help slow the progress of climate change and protect people and wildlife from its impacts.

Healthy natural habitats have the potential to draw down and store vast amounts of carbon to tackle climate change, hold flood water, and provide homes for wildlife to tackle the nature crisis.

Nature-based solutions could deliver more than 30% of the emissions reductions needed by 2030.1 Clean growth, enabling us to meet carbon commitments, and a green recovery will not only increase our resilience to future economic and environmental shocks, but also provide productive opportunities, space for innovation and new jobs and skills.

A Green Alliance report found that every pound invested in woodland restoration would produce £2.80 in economic benefits.

The benefits come from carbon sequestration, recreation, clean air and improved water quality, and reduced flood risk. The report also found that in urban areas, thousands of jobs could be created by investing in parks and green spaces for health and leisure. As well as creating jobs, huge financial savings can be made in the health sector by improving people’s health and wellbeing through connecting with nature.

There is increasing recognition that as we look towards an economic recovery, it is essential we do not revert to business as usual - but ‘build back better’.

To meet the challenge of climate change, we need resilient, abundant, and biodiverse ecosystems across our three counties and beyond. By protecting, sustainably managing and restoring our ecosystems, nature-based solutions can help ensure human wellbeing, enhance biodiversity and create a more resilient economy. https://nature4climate.org/

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What is green recovery?

Green recovery is a widely adopted term for a proposed package of environmental, regulatory, and fiscal reforms to recover prosperity after the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides an unmissable opportunity to invest in the recovery of our natural environment following decades of degradation.

Human impact on the environment has created a global nature and climate crisis, the impacts of which are being felt on our own doorsteps.

The UK is now one of the most nature depleted countries in the world.

Broken ecosystems pose direct economic risks, including vulnerability to flooding, heat waves, drought, crop failure and ill health from air and water pollution. A truly green recovery would address these developing risks, both curing the current crisis and preventing future ones.

There are three main components to set us on the path to a green recovery:

Investment in the low-carbon economy

What can a green recovery deliver?

At the heart of a green recovery is the need to use nature-based solutions to deliver resilient businesses, jobs and landscapes.

Investment in natural capital

Greener law and policy

Why is a green recovery needed?

A thriving natural environment is one of the best defences against climate change.

From woodlands storing carbon, to floodplains protecting urban areas from floods, nature has the solutions to help slow the progress of climate change and protect people and wildlife from its impacts.

Healthy natural habitats have the potential to draw down and store vast amounts of carbon to tackle climate change, hold flood water, and provide homes for wildlife to tackle the nature crisis.

Nature-based solutions could deliver more than 30% of the emissions reductions needed by 2030.1 Clean growth, enabling us to meet carbon commitments, and a green recovery will not only increase our resilience to future economic and environmental shocks, but also provide productive opportunities, space for innovation and new jobs and skills.

A Green Alliance report found that every pound invested in woodland restoration would produce £2.80 in economic benefits.

The benefits come from carbon sequestration, recreation, clean air and improved water quality, and reduced flood risk. The report also found that in urban areas, thousands of jobs could be created by investing in parks and green spaces for health and leisure. As well as creating jobs, huge financial savings can be made in the health sector by improving people’s health and wellbeing through connecting with nature.

There is increasing recognition that as we look towards an economic recovery, it is essential we do not revert to business as usual - but ‘build back better’.

To meet the challenge of climate change, we need resilient, abundant, and biodiverse ecosystems across our three counties and beyond. By protecting, sustainably managing and restoring our ecosystems, nature-based solutions can help ensure human wellbeing, enhance biodiversity and create a more resilient economy. https://nature4climate.org/

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Steps to achieve a green recovery locally At the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) we want to see 30% of land across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire well managed for nature by 2030. Our new ‘Nature Recovery Network’ (NRN) will help us achieve that vision. It maps joined-up areas across our three counties that cover 180,000 hectares in its core and recovery zones, the restoration of which are vital for the protection of wildlife.

Across our recovery zones there will be opportunities to create new priority habitats and other important havens for wildlife - such as hedgerows and scrub. In these areas we will explore new approaches to conservation, such as rewilding, to help create wilder and more connected landscapes.

Our Nature Recovery Network Recovery zone Areas that buffer and restore areas of connectivity between existing core sites, and represent the best places to restore and create new habitats.

New habitats could be created to help offset local development and achieve ‘Biodiversity Net Gain’. We will also work to develop nature-based solutions, improving natural flood management, capturing carbon and improving other important ecosystem services.

Core zone Areas of existing high value for wildlife and designated sites for nature conservation.

These include BBOWT nature reserves, nationally and locally designated sites, and priority habitats.

Wider landscape zone Areas surrounding the core and recovery zones, made more ecologically permeable and less hostile to wildlife.

Nature is included in decision making, regardless of where the land lies.

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Steps to achieve a green recovery locally At the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) we want to see 30% of land across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire well managed for nature by 2030. Our new ‘Nature Recovery Network’ (NRN) will help us achieve that vision. It maps joined-up areas across our three counties that cover 180,000 hectares in its core and recovery zones, the restoration of which are vital for the protection of wildlife.

Across our recovery zones there will be opportunities to create new priority habitats and other important havens for wildlife - such as hedgerows and scrub. In these areas we will explore new approaches to conservation, such as rewilding, to help create wilder and more connected landscapes.

Our Nature Recovery Network Recovery zone Areas that buffer and restore areas of connectivity between existing core sites, and represent the best places to restore and create new habitats.

New habitats could be created to help offset local development and achieve ‘Biodiversity Net Gain’. We will also work to develop nature-based solutions, improving natural flood management, capturing carbon and improving other important ecosystem services.

Core zone Areas of existing high value for wildlife and designated sites for nature conservation.

These include BBOWT nature reserves, nationally and locally designated sites, and priority habitats.

Wider landscape zone Areas surrounding the core and recovery zones, made more ecologically permeable and less hostile to wildlife.

Nature is included in decision making, regardless of where the land lies.

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How can BBOWT work with local authorities to deliver a green recovery?

We have been working closely with Buckinghamshire Council to deliver a pilot strategy to put nature into recovery. We will use the expertise gained to help colleagues create their own strategies once the Environment Bill becomes law.

In Oxfordshire, we are working closely with local authorities to establish a Local Nature Partnership for the county. Together with the Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre, Wild Oxfordshire, and Oxfordshire local authorities, we’re developing Oxfordshire’s draft nature recovery network.

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We want to bring “people closer to nature, protect wildlife, create jobs, and bring about a green recovery

“

We want to work with local authorities to facilitate landscape scale habitat restoration within Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire’s Nature Recovery Network to bring people closer to nature, protect wildlife, create jobs, and bring about a green recovery.

Habitat Banking

Habitat banking

BBOWT is keen to work with local authorities to facilitate habitat banking. Once the Environment Bill comes into force, there will be a requirement on all developments to achieve biodiversity net gain. This presents an opportunity for valuable natural habitats to be created where they have the biggest impacts for wildlife - alongside benefits to local communities.

BBOWT has a long track record of working on projects with councils, at parish, town and district level, providing support, guidance and resources. These projects enable councils to achieve biodiversity and climate change goals and commitments within environmental strategies, whilst giving residents the chance to engage with the environment around them, offering an easy way to boost their physical and mental wellbeing.

For example, the Wild Verges project is a partnership between BBOWT and West Berkshire Council which will run from 2020-2023. It will create a network of wildlife-friendly habitat along roadsides that will support crucial pollinators like bees and butterflies. This network of verges will also act as corridors allowing birds and small mammals to move and thrive, contributing to the future Nature Recovery Network.

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How can BBOWT work with local authorities to deliver a green recovery?

We have been working closely with Buckinghamshire Council to deliver a pilot strategy to put nature into recovery. We will use the expertise gained to help colleagues create their own strategies once the Environment Bill becomes law.

In Oxfordshire, we are working closely with local authorities to establish a Local Nature Partnership for the county. Together with the Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre, Wild Oxfordshire, and Oxfordshire local authorities, we’re developing Oxfordshire’s draft nature recovery network.

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We want to bring “people closer to nature, protect wildlife, create jobs, and bring about a green recovery

“

We want to work with local authorities to facilitate landscape scale habitat restoration within Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire’s Nature Recovery Network to bring people closer to nature, protect wildlife, create jobs, and bring about a green recovery.

Habitat Banking

Habitat banking

BBOWT is keen to work with local authorities to facilitate habitat banking. Once the Environment Bill comes into force, there will be a requirement on all developments to achieve biodiversity net gain. This presents an opportunity for valuable natural habitats to be created where they have the biggest impacts for wildlife - alongside benefits to local communities.

BBOWT has a long track record of working on projects with councils, at parish, town and district level, providing support, guidance and resources. These projects enable councils to achieve biodiversity and climate change goals and commitments within environmental strategies, whilst giving residents the chance to engage with the environment around them, offering an easy way to boost their physical and mental wellbeing.

For example, the Wild Verges project is a partnership between BBOWT and West Berkshire Council which will run from 2020-2023. It will create a network of wildlife-friendly habitat along roadsides that will support crucial pollinators like bees and butterflies. This network of verges will also act as corridors allowing birds and small mammals to move and thrive, contributing to the future Nature Recovery Network.

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Together, we can make a green recovery happen.

Find out more: BBOWT’s environmental experts can help your council, by providing advice, support and resources.

To discover more about what a green recovery looks like in our region and how we can achieve it together, please get in touch.

Contact us: Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust, The Lodge, 1 Armstrong Road, Littlemore, Oxford, OX4 4XT Tel: 01865 775476 Email: info@bbowt.org.uk Registered charity number: 204330 Company registered number: 00680007 Image credits:

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