10 minute read
The Essex Local Nature Partnership
from Wild Magazine Winter 2022
by essexwt
Working Together
for wildlife
Introducing the Essex Local Nature Partnership
The Essex Local Nature Partnership (LNP) is an alliance of organisations in Essex who have committed to working together over the next decade to tackle the climate crisis and the ecological crisis. The LNP is the first time that these organisations have come together in a coordinated way at such scale, which we hope will prove to be a watershed moment in the future of our county. And the timing couldn’t be better. The magnitude of the challenges ahead require us to operate at scale and with a new sense of urgency and ambition. The clock is ticking. The time really is now.
Coordinated by Essex County Council, the LNP currently includes (in alphabetical order): Braintree District Council, Country Land and Business Association, Environment Agency, Essex Association of Local Councils, Essex Climate Action Commission, Essex Cultural Diversity Project, Essex Developers Forum, Essex Highways, Essex Wellbeing Service, Essex Wildlife Trust, Forestry England, Ground Control, National Farmers Union, Natural England, NHS Partnerships, Place Services, RSPB, Rural Communities Council for Essex, Southend-on-Sea City Council, The Conservation Volunteers, Thurrock Council, Whirledge & Nott, Wilderness Foundation, Woodland Trust, and Young Essex Assembly. We’re a big group!
Welcome to the Local Nature Partnership
Plans for the Local Nature Partnership (LNP) were drawn up in 2021 and began in earnest in March 2022 with the appointment of Dr Simon Lyster, an experienced conservationist and environmental leader (as well as a contributor to WILD Magazine), as the Chair of the LNP Board. Simon was Director General of The Wildlife Trusts from 1995-2003 and has held many senior national roles, making him the ideal Chair. Simon was soon joined by Helena Taylor as the LNP’s Coordinator. Simon and Helena, who was formerly with The Conservation Volunteers, are passionate about the nature recovery opportunities in Essex and form the core team.
The need for a Local Nature Partnership in Essex
It is well reported that the UK is one of the most nature depleted countries on earth. According to the Biodiversity Intactness Index, the UK ranks 189th out of 218 countries. Essex, meanwhile, is by many measures the most developed county in the UK.
The mission of the LNP is to reverse the decline of nature in Essex. “It won’t be easy, but the opportunities to succeed in our mission are greater than ever, and I am confident we can do it”, says Simon. “The key is partnership, and we have brought together all the relevant interests, from businesses to farmers to NGOs, to work together for change, and they are all eager to engage and help”. With new incentives planned to reward nature-friendly farming, the 2021 Environment Act imposing new duties to enhance biodiversity, and many Essex communities already active in nature recovery and combating climate change, the omens are promising.
“Scale is critical”, says Simon. “We have asked organisations to pool their expertise, resources, and influence in order to achieve impact on a scale that just wouldn’t be possible individually. I am particularly excited that a group of 40-50 farmers in the upper Blackwater catchment have already come together, backed by water companies and local authorities, to deliver nature improvements at scale in their part of Essex.”
The coming together of organisations to fight a common cause has been a real shift in recent times, not least the alliance of conservation charities in response to the Government’s policy position in September, under the banner of the Defend Nature campaign. “Working in partnership is the only way we are going to tackle the big problems in the future,” argues Dr Andrew Impey, Chief Executive of Essex Wildlife Trust. “The need for a Local Nature Partnership is greater than ever.”
“The Local Nature Partnership has four ambitious targets for 2030 which guide our work, around which all organisations are coalescing,” explains Helena Taylor, Local Nature Partnership Coordinator. “These will be the litmus test for us. Failure isn’t an option, unfortunately.”
European eel
Badger
Targets
The Local Nature Partnership has four main targets over the next decade:
1
14% to 25% in Essex by 2030.
2 3 4
50% of farmland in Essex to adopt sustainable stewardship practices by 2030.
1 in 4 people taking action for
wildlife by 2030.
Access to high quality green
space for all by 2030.
Bringing together our expertise
The LNP is governed by the LNP Board, which consists of representatives from agriculture, development, local government, conservation organisations, community groups, health organisations, youth groups and businesses. “The LNP Board met for the first time in person in July 2022 at Abbotts Hall,” says Helena, “and the energy and enthusiasm was fantastic. It bodes well for the future.” The Board oversees four Working Groups, which are in turn led by different organisations. Among the most critical of these Working Groups is the one charged with leading on the creation of the county’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy, which is a statutory requirement of the Environment Act 2021.
The LNRS working group brings together the knowledge and skills to create a strategy that has the best possible outcomes for nature in Essex. The Working Group is Chaired by Tim Simpson, Green Infrastructure and SuDs Manager at Essex County Council, as the LNRS will be delivered by Essex County Council on behalf of Greater Essex, which includes Southend-on-Sea City Council and Thurrock Council – authorities which are represented on the group.
What is the Local Nature Recovery Strategy?
Tim explains: “The LNRS will map existing spaces for nature, and future opportunities for habitat creation and restoration, thereby providing a blueprint for nature’s recovery and identifying the actions needed to drive change on the ground. Our Essex LNRS will form part of an England-wide Nature Recovery Network, so every county is going through an equivalent process. We are currently awaiting further guidance from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs to progress the LNRS further, and then we’ll really be getting some momentum.”
Skylark
Watch out for opportunities to find out about and contribute to the Essex LNRS.
Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) Working Group
The BNG Working Group is preparing Essex for Biodiversity Net Gain at county level. Biodiversity Net Gain is the forthcoming requirement (enshrined in the Environment Act 2021 but yet-to-be mandated) for the development of land to achieve a minimum of 10% gain for wildlife, thereby leaving the natural environment in a measurably better state than it was beforehand. The Working Group is Chaired by Emma Goldings, Chairperson of Essex Planners Officers Association (EPOA) and Head of Planning at Braintree District Council.
“We are learning from examples of BNG across the UK, from businesses in the private sector to district authorities who are beginning to include BNG in local plans,” says Emma. The group is currently working on a Guidance Pack for Local Planning Authorities, which outlines what BNG is, how it works, current mandatory elements of BNG and how it might impact a planning officer, a developer, or a landowner.
If you are interested in receiving the BNG Guidance Pack, please get in touch.
Community Engagement Working Group
The Community Engagement Working Group is formed of key organisations who lead on engagement with nature across Essex. The Working Group is Chaired by Rich Yates, Director of Engagement at Essex Wildlife Trust, and the Vice Chair is Jane Houghton, Project Manager at Natural England. “We’re tasked with delivering against the LNP’s two ‘people’ targets,” Rich tells us. “We want access to high quality green space for all and 1 in 4 people taking action for wildlife by 2030.” The group is currently creating baseline studies for both targets, exploring potential funding opportunities to support their goals moving forward, and developing delivery plans. The group have recently been learning from community groups who are already active, including PACE (Practical Actions for Climate and Environment), a local community action group in Manningtree, Chaired by former Trust CEO John Hall. PACE work together to address the climate crisis and support the natural environment.
Photo: Chris Gomersall/2020VISION
If you are a community group who want to tell us about your work or need support, please get in touch.
Agricultural Working Group
The Agricultural Working Group is tasked with supporting the delivery of the LNP’s two ‘space’ targets: increasing Natural Green Infrastructure from 14% to 25% in Essex by 2030 and supporting 50% of farms in Essex to be using sustainable practices by 2030. The group is Chaired by Hannah Buckenham, Head of Habitat Database at Whirledge & Nott.
“With the help of organisations including the National Farmers Union, the Country Land and Business Association, and Natural England, we will be connecting with farmers and landowners across Essex to understand the barriers to sustainable land management, and identify any support that’s currently missing,” says Hannah. “We know that farmers care deeply about the natural world and want to be sustainable, but it’s not always straightforward. We want to work with them to make it as easy as possible.”
If you’re a farmer or landowner and want to work with us, get in touch.
Find out more
Essex Wildlife Trust is committed to working through the Local Nature Partnership, so we will keep you updated as members of the Trust. However, if you want to know more, or contact either the Chair, the Coordinator, or any of the Working Groups, email nature.partnership@essex.gov.uk. You can also sign up for our quarterly e-newsletter, which reports on the progress of the four Working Groups, events, important announcements, and much more.
Inspirational supporters
Greg and Jenny
The Essex I grew up in was a very different place from the county we know today. In the mid-fifties there were fewer houses, a lot more green fields, much less traffic
and vastly more wildlife. Even in the 1960s, I remember the dawn chorus being so loud and prolonged that it could even wake me early in the morning as a comatose teenager after a night on the tiles. There were so many birds it was pretty well impossible to identify the individual singers.
Now, over fifty years later, I no longer indulge in late nights, nor do I get awakened by a deafening avian choir in the wee small hours. A few weeks ago, I listened attentively to the dawn chorus and realised that there were less than a dozen individual participants: one wren, two blackbirds, one robin and a couple of great tits, plus the usual collared doves and wood pigeons.
My husband, Greg, grew up in New Zealand where, he says, bird numbers have been decimated by rats and other predators. Most indigenous bird species there cannot fly, largely because there were originally no indigenous predatory mammals to make flight necessary. That situation has sadly changed.
Greg and I both agree that we want to help wildlife of all kinds to regain the foothold to which it is entitled, and to restore the long-lost balance between humans and the natural world. And the best place to start is on our own doorstep.
Since our wishes tally wholeheartedly with the aims of the Essex Wildlife Trust, and since I have lived in Essex since childhood and Greg for over 35 years, we thought we could do no better than to leave a small legacy to the Trust. We hope that, in some way, this may be used to help towards redressing the losses the natural world has experienced during the course of the last 60 years.
Ours may not be a big legacy, but if everyone who feels as we do were to leave a small amount, the tide of wildlife deterioration might be able to be turned.
Jenny and Greg Curtis-Beard
Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex
For more details on leaving a gift in your Will, call our Legacy team on 01621 862987, visit www.essexwt.org. uk/gifts-in-wills or scan the QR code.
