/Natures_Edge

The Northwest Regional Development Agency manages all operations from its Headquarters at: PO Box 37 Renaissance House Centre Park Warrington WA1 1XB Tel: +44 (0)1925 400 100 Fax: +44 (0)1925 400 400 e-mail: information@nwda.co.uk

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Investing in sustainable development and a natural advantage for England’s Northwest

Nature’s Edge

Contents 3

INTRODUCTION

Securing a natural advantage 4

SECTION ONE

Investing in regional renewal 10

SECTION TWO

Natural capital growth 12

SECTION THREE

Eco-enterprise and innovation 15

CONCLUSION

Delivering regional sustainable development

Nature’s Edge 03

Chief executive’s introduction

Securing a natural advantage The successful regional economies of the future will be those that work with nature and not against it.

At the Northwest Regional Development Agency we are delivering a wide range of programmes and initiatives that are improving our environment and securing direct economic and quality of life benefits.

This report highlights these programmes and also pays tribute to the many regional partners that we are working with to create this natural competitive advantage.

Some of the report’s highlights include our commitment to ‘green’ business, including the environmental technologies sector, which employs more than 52,000 people and generates £2.3 billion for the region’s economy.

This commitment extends to the entire business sector, not least through ENWORK, the regional network that has delivered advice and support to 3,500 businesses.

This report also highlights our investment in the ‘greening of the Northwest’ through programmes like Newlands and REMADE, which together are creating hundreds of hectares of new woodland on derelict, neglected or underused land.

The commitment to a greener, cleaner and more competitive region extends to the management of the NWDA itself. In July 2004 an environmental sub-group of our board was established, charged with the strategic direction of the Agency on all environmentrelated matters.

The NWDA has also worked to strengthen its partnerships with those working for sustainable development and a better environment; this includes signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Environment Agency and a Service Level Agreement with Sustainability Northwest which strengthens the partnerships with both of these vital regional organisations.

Partnerships, a focus on delivery and a strong desire to increase our region’s productivity and prosperity are just some of the factors that are a shaping the sustainable development agenda for the region, proving one thing for certain: when it comes to the environment, the Northwest means business.

Steven Broomhead, Chief Executive Northwest Regional Development Agency

Above, Bendalls Engineering, one of the region’s growing number of environmental technology firms; children help the Mersey Forest transform wasteland into woodland.

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Section one: Investing in regional renewal

A sound and sustainable in A fundamental priority for the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and its partners is the ‘greening of the Northwest’. From the reclamation of brownfield land to new areas of woodland and improved, green visitor attractions, a concerted effort is being made to change the image of our region, forever.

Once the cradle of the industrial revolution, England’s Northwest retains an unfortunate legacy of being home to one quarter of the country’s derelict land, much of which is contaminated. Cleaning up and greening this land improves life for local communities, makes a real difference to our region’s image and increases property values.

projects that are designed to deliver far greater and far longer lasting benefits.

Strong evidence for this transformation can be taken from the former Bold Colliery site in St Helens, one of the first community woodlands in the UK. Thanks to the 20year greening of this area by the local council, Groundwork and the Mersey Forest, property values have risen by £15 million compared to similar properties nearby, while over £75 million in new developments has been attracted by the dramatically changed landscape.

One of the NWDA’s main schemes is Newlands, a £23 million joint initiative with the Forestry Commission that is transforming 430 hectares of brownfield land across the Mersey Belt into durable community woodland. Intelligent and carefully planned, with sites strategically targeted and enhanced using a unique Public Benefit Recording System (PBRS), Newlands is set to become the blueprint for soft-end land use, and has already won praise from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM).

This is the kind of transformation the NWDA is funding right across the region, through an investment in land reclamation to provide new ‘soft-end’ land uses.

The Agency is investing in regeneration

Intelligence - led woodland development

The seven sites selected for investment under the first phase of Newlands give a powerful insight into the benefits that are about to be unlocked using woodland development. In Ellesmere Port a gateway

site is to be improved, giving an entirely new feel to the approach to the Wirral. In Salford a massive 200-plus hectare site is to become a new ‘green lung’ for the city and has attracted the personal attention of the Deputy Prime Minister. In Rochdale the greening programme is being linked to a Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder, again securing the boost in value and desirability that community woodland and ‘green streets’ are becoming known for.

Beyond Newlands there are nearly a dozen other NWDA-funded major projects and schemes including REMADE in Lancashire, which aims to transform over 334 hectares of derelict land at a cost of up to £21 million. In Cumbria £10 million of NWDA funding is helping rejuvenate 187 hectares of derelict land, creating wildlife areas, community parks and new woodland.

Vitally, all these programmes are reclaiming brownfield land and bringing accessible green spaces back into a region that has one of the lowest tree covers in Europe.

This is an area where sustained investment

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e investment

Through regional parks, regeneration schemes and woodland programmes a new tree has been planted in the Northwest every two seconds of every working day over the last five years, that equates to over 20,000,000 trees, or three and half football pitches every day.

The LIVIA site in Salford

and long-range thinking is really starting to make a difference: through regional parks, regeneration schemes and woodland programmes a new tree has been planted in the Northwest every two seconds of every working day over the last five years, that equates to over 20,000,000 trees, or three and half football pitches every day.

Regional parks, regional priorities A sense of scale, ambition and widespread benefit is perfectly captured in the Agency’s regional parks programme.

Regional parks are major environmental initiatives conceived as part of the NWDA’s first Regional Economic Strategy (RES). They build not just on the natural environment, but also the heritage and history of the region, helping to create a place where people want to live, work, invest and visit.

Regional parks can bring huge regeneration benefits and play an integral part in enhancing

a region’s image. They will have critical mass, a scale that works, and can vitally attract new businesses, create new jobs, increase tourism and rejuvenate our towns.

The Mersey Waterfront was the first regional park to be created in the Northwest. The NWDA has so far given nearly £9 million to transform 135km of coastline into the Mersey Waterfront Regional Park. Investment and change stretch from new visitor attractions in Southport – including an award-winning ‘Eco-Centre’ – to better access to the beaches at Formby. Finally Mersey Waterfront also includes a major land reclamation programme at Speke Garston, where derelict land is being transformed into a new coastal reserve. This new coastal reserve – which had its feasibility study funded by the NWDA – literally sitting at the end of Liverpool John Lennon Airport, will make a lasting impression on all who visit our region through this increasingly popular gateway.

In East Lancashire the aim is of a visionary regional park based upon the concept of ‘city living in a rural context’, where the

regional park replaces the city centre as the place where people meet and socialise. It’s backed up with more than £5million from the NWDA and will form part of a wideranging development programme along the urban fringe of some of the UK’s most deprived wards, designed to improve living conditions, improve health and improve the environment where businesses can thrive.

Three other regional park proposals are being supported by the NWDA through the Regional Spatial Strategy process. The NWDA support is covering their planning stages as well as funding of specific projects. The three areas under examination are: The Northwest Coastal Trail, Ribble Estuary and Weaver Valley.

The regional parks planned across the Northwest, and the land reclamation programmes running from the outskirts of Workington through to gateway sites in Cheshire, are set to deliver a lasting boost to our region’s image, as well as direct benefits for our local communities for many generations to come.

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East Lancashire’s Panopticons For East Lancashire an innovative and creative approach to land reclamation has been adopted in the form of six panopticons – literally ‘all-seeing structures’ – planned for each of the districts that make up East Lancashire.

Funded with £400,000 from the NWDA and designed by some of the world’s most exciting architects, they will take the form of shelters, viewing platforms and beacons, and are set to become iconic symbols of the area’s regeneration, and landmarks that boost the area’s international profile.

One new, striking landmark is being proposed for each of the area’s six districts. Built on high-point sites across the East Lancashire Regional Park they will contribute dramatically to the area’s transformation.

Land reclamation in New East Manchester The development partnership between Urban Splash, English Partnerships and New

East Manchester is applying an innovative solution to the disposing of contaminated land excavated during the development of new homes at New Islington in the Manchester district of Ancoats.

The New Islington partnership has established an on-site land treatment works that is allowing earth which would otherwise have been sent to landfill to be cleaned and reused in the development. Providing savings in excess of £550,000 through avoidance of landfill costs and the use of recycled materials, the onsite ‘land cleaning’ process also prevents more than 60,000 cubic metres of earth going to landfill.

LIVIA in Salford Covering more than 200 hectares across Clifton and Clifton Green in Salford, Ringley in Bolton and Stand in Bury, LIVIA (Lower Irwell Valley Improvement Area) is being transformed under the NWDA’s Newlands scheme by a partnership that includes the Forestry Commission, Salford City, Bolton and Bury Councils, United Utilities, Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority, BIFFA, Groundwork Manchester, Salford and Trafford and the Red Rose Forest.

An artist’s impression of the Alsop-designed ‘Chips’ development in New Islington, where on-site treatment of contaminated soil is diverting 60,000 cubic metres of earth away from landfill.

The site is crossed by the M60 and the River Irwell and is highly visible from two main transport corridors. Former uses of the site – and current areas of contamination – include a colliery, a power station and sewage works.

The NWDA-funded works will enhance the local environment, have an impact on new investment and improve property values around Clifton Industrial Estate and Clifton Green residential area. Through its relationship to the M60, the site can act as a regional gateway with the new uses supporting proposals for the Croal Irwell Regional Park project.

Newlands will transform the ecological and environmental state of LIVIA with a restoration programme to develop the site into community woodland. Socially, LIVIA will increase the quantity and quality of leisure facilities in the area, for both local communities and as a driver for visitors, linking with the Irwell Sculpture Trail, the Outwood Cycle Trail and existing Parks, and itself offering a high-grade visitor destination.

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Case study

Southport’s Eco Centre Set against the dramatic coastal backdrop of the town’s Esplanade, Southport Eco Centre joins the growing number of national centres of excellence in waterfront regeneration. Designed by Liverpool architects Cass Associates for Sefton Council, the Eco Centre forms part of the town’s seafront park and ride facility that is also used as a conference and education facility. It was supported by the NWDA through Mersey Waterfront.

The building makes extensive use of sustainable technologies and demonstrates a wide range of low energy, sustainable construction techniques. The impressive structure uses rainwater recovery methods to save on water usage and active and passive solar technology, together with a 9kw wind turbine to generate electricity.

Combined with extremely high levels of insulation and groundbase thermal storage and recovery systems, the building is at the cutting edge of sustainable energy usage.

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Section two: Conserving our natural capital

Nature delivers the business Conservation is about more than the emotional appeal of our most precious flora and fauna – and there’s a direct economic benefit.

Earning an annual £500,000 for their locality at Brassenthwaite in the Lake District, England’s first pair of breeding Ospreys for 150 years are big business.

The Ospreys didn’t randomly opt for the Lake District, however, the construction of a nest by the Forestry Commission and the Lake District National Park Authority provided the ideal home for them; this bold project was supported by the NWDA through Rural Regeneration Cumbria, the UK’s first rural regeneration company.

Equally hardworking in delivering an economic boost is the co-operation of 1,000 Red Squirrels at Formby in

Lancashire, who together attract a visitor spend of almost £1 million every year.

Without the careful management of Scots and Corsican pine at Formby Point by the National Trust, the Red Squirrel population is unlikely to have survived.

A number of NWDA-supported programmes will enhance and protect the contribution made by the Red Squirrels, not least through the efforts of the Mersey Waterfront Regional Park.

These vital economic contributions from, at first glance, some unlikely sources, were the subject of ‘The Environmental Economy of the Northwest’, a report in

2000 prepared by the NWDA and a range of partners. The report quantifies the value of the environmental sector and explores its reach in terms of our regional performance.

Green value added In total – and this is a conservative estimate – the natural environment, and those businesses operating within it, gross around £2.5billion for the Northwest economy. Immediately reliant on the environmental health of our region is the Primary Sector – the fishing, forestry, agriculture and outdoor sport businesses, all of whom combine

The Ospreys at Bassenthwaite have become an attraction in their own right.

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The natural environment, and those businesses operating within it, gross around £2.5 billion for the Northwest economy.

The red squirrels at Formby pull in £ 1 million per year

to provide13,000 jobs and generate £160 million each year. This figure pales in comparison to the contribution made by companies which provide direct environmental goods and services such as waste management, renewable energy and environmental technologies.

It is the many businesses that depend on the environment indirectly, however, that underline the true importance of the region’s natural offering. As a stand-alone sector, tourism in the region is a major employer with a 200,000-strong workforce.

It is estimated that £567 million of its £4.38 billion contribution to the economy is derived directly from visits to environmental attractions, such as woodlands which alone receive around 33 million day visits a year.

And much of that tourism relies directly on the region’s natural assets. It has again been estimated that 48,000 tourism jobs in the region are dependent on a high quality environment. A quarter of tourist visits in the region - 33 million out of a total of 135 million - are to ‘environmental attractions’, and that number is growing.

A quality environment The natural environment is not the main reason why companies might want to invest in the region, but it often plays a very prominent role. A good example of this would be the Chester City Council’s work on Chester’s river wall, initially designed as a flood defence, but now a major factor in prompting investment in the regeneration of a tract of previously derelict land.

In fact the natural environment is a key feature of the Regional Economic Strategy (RES) and it permeates each of the five sectors identified within it - business development, skills and employment, infrastructure, regeneration and image.

In the case of the last two sectors it’s immediately apparent that a quality natural environment has a crucial role to play, but it can also contribute significantly to each of the others.

Natural Economy Northwest, a partnership led by English Nature on behalf of the NWDA is following up on the ‘Environmental Economy’ report from 2000 and is bringing

nature into the heart of the economy, to help unlock the widespread benefits that it offers.

It is being guided by a report from 2003 entitled ‘The Economic and Regenerative Value of the Natural Environment’ (ERVNE), which identifies a range of current and proposed projects across the Northwest which have the potential to generate significant economic, regenerative and environmental benefits for the region.

And in the immediate future the NWDA will co-ordinate the expenditure of £5.1 million of Objective two funding for natural economy projects that particularly benefit the region’s tourism offer.

Another NWDA investment in a better environmental future has seen £418,000 given in support of Merseyside’s ‘Operation Eden’, a multi-faith programme designed to encourage faith communities to help conserve and improve their local environments.

Practical programmes being supported include community food initiatives, recycling and the sustainable re-use of disused buildings.

Case studies Bathing beauty

Wetlands wonder

The quality of our coastal and bathing waters is set to get a boost courtesy of the NWDA-backed Improving Coastal and Recreational Waters (ICREW) programme. The project is a dynamic partnership stretching across five European states and is being led in the Northwest by the Environment Agency.

As a result of ERVNE work, the NWDA invested £150,000 in a region wide feasibility study looking at the potential economic benefits of the region’s wetlands. This study is being led by the Environment Agency on behalf of Natural Economy Northwest.

ICREW - funded by the EU - will focus on a number of areas including fidduse pollution, water quality standards, and the promotion of water-based recreation activity.

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Section three: Eco-enterprise and sustainable innovation

Enterprise, innovation and a better business environment The small, peaceful lake of Loweswater lies in an unspoilt valley in the Lake District, surrounded by a tiny community of scattered farms – some offering bed and breakfast – and a hotel. It’s the ideal tourist destination, except for the bright green algal bloom that appears every summer on the surface of the lake.

Toxic to humans and aquatic life, the algae are progressively damaging Loweswater’s ecology and its reappearance each year means that the lake has to be closed for fishing and bathing. The algae grows because of the massive swings in pH caused by seasonal run-off of agricultural slurry, sewage discharges and the peat particulate that washes down from the uplands in heavy rain.

Now, assisted by Envirolink Northwest, the NWDA-funded environmental technologies champion, a feasibility study has been launched into how an anaerobic digestor could be used to divert the waste flow, clean up the lake and even provide gas supplies to the local hotel. It’s a marriage of conservation, innovation and direct local benefit.

The next industrial evolution Loweswater is just one practical example of the new thinking that Envirolink has stimulated amongst the 1,500 regional companies active in the environmental technology and services sector.

Envirolink supports the sector – and influences the other industries of the Northwest – through promotional activities, events, research activities, demonstration projects and through direct ‘knowledge transfer’ work with the higher education and research sector.

One of its many programmes is a project to support 18 companies from the food, paper and chemicals sectors as they work to analyse their waste streams and through materials science innovation and smart

engineering, transform what has thus far been expensive rubbish into a product that might be useful to other industries; part of a ‘Transformation of Waste to Products’ programme.

Working with scientists from the University of Manchester, new products made from factory waste are in development, and the construction industry – the Northwest’s biggest single producer of waste – may be the next sector to take part.

A similar approach is being taken by NWDA partner the Clean Merseyside Centre (CMC).

With the UK recycling market already worth over £12 billion a year and continuing to grow, CMC wants to ensure the Northwest gets a share of this growing market. Between 2002 and 2004 the CMC helped to create two new businesses and 40 new jobs on Merseyside, safeguarded 100 existing jobs and saw

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16,000 tonnes of material diverted from landfill representing £1.3 million of added value for the area. One current project involves taking heavy green waste – food, plants, cardboard – from factories and local authorities, and blending it into environmentally friendly peatreduced compost.

Symbiotically speaking The Mersey Banks Industrial Symbiosis Project takes resource efficiency one step further. Led by Chemicals Northwest, the NWDA-funded leader for the chemicals sector, the project not only looked at ways of directing waste from one chemicals company to another which could use it as an ‘ingredient’, but it also explored ways of companies sharing resources.

As a result of the Mersey Banks project, Chemicals Northwest has just been awarded

part of a national £13 million Defra industrial symbiosis programme. The target is to divert 100,000 tonnes of waste a year from going to landfill in the first twelve months.

Carlisle-based engineering firm Bendalls performed well on its first test-dunk at UMIST and now the firm is working to raise the money to make it commercially viable.

Oceans of energy

Greener forms of power generation are also the objective for Cumbria and Lancashire Community Renewables (CLAREN), which helps communities in Lancashire and Cumbria explore the potential for using renewable energy for local needs.

Energy is the other industrial challenge being tackled by the region’s ecoinnovators. With energy efficiency and green power as two central targets for the NWDA backed Northwest Energy Council, there are some truly innovative solutions appearing in labs and development centres across the region.

Ocean WaveMaster is a good example.

Essentially a large and deceptively clever box anchored to the seabed, it generates energy from differentials in water pressure and was invented by Cheshire-based inventor Alex Southcombe. A mini-prototype made by

Following a feasibility study supported and part-funded by CLAREN at Eskdale Green in Cumbria, a school, a youth hostel and five domestic households could soon be glorying in the warmth pumped out by 90 per cent efficient biomass boilers. The boilers would use woodchip from local Forestry Commission woodland, a fuel that is considered carbon neutral as long as it comes from a sustainable source.

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Energy is another industrial challenge being tackled by the region’s eco-innovators Nuclear know-how Energy exploration in England’s Northwest stretches beyond solar, wind and wave, however. April’s launch of the Cumbriabased but national Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has focused attention on the opportunities for making much more of our nuclear clean-up expertise. Decommissioning could offer real opportunities for economic growth, particularly as there are organisations across the Northwest that have worked with the nuclear industry in the UK and are familiar with the worldwide regulations, who have specialist niche capabilities, and who will be able to compete globally.

Progress, productivity and prosperity The business benefits of good environmental management have long been promoted here in England’s Northwest, where a concerted

effort is now being made to take ecobusiness engagement to the next level.

The NWDA-sponsored Northwest Business Environment Awards, now in its third year run by the Mersey Basin Campaign and its partners, is making the practices of the best a standard for the rest.

The NWDA is also a firm supporter of ENWORKS, an umbrella partnership that coordinates the delivery of environmental advice to small and medium-sized companies.

Since January 2002 ENWORKS has been invited to give detailed advice and support to 3,500 Northwest businesses, has created or safeguarded the equivalent of 3,300 jobs.

The environmental impact of ENWORKS is as impressive as its contribution to the region’s competitiveness; during one 15-month auditing period ENWORKS’ activities helped client companies to save £4.5 million in resource efficiency costs and stopped a massive 15,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide being released.

Now Enworks’ efforts on efficiency and resource use will be given an additional boost of £500,000 from Defra through the BREW programme. The expenditure in the Northwest will include research, promotional and management activities.

Defra has agreed £5 million per year for three years to help RDAs make a major impact on resource efficiency. The resultant programme – which will get £550,000 per year here in the Northwest – will include research, promotional and management activities.

With the ground thus prepared, Responsibility Northwest, co-ordinated

by Sustainability Northwest (SNW) was launched in 2004 with the intention of implanting corporate responsibility into the fundamental business planning of companies throughout the region. With the first phase of intelligence-gathering into the needs of over 500 participating businesses now complete, the initiative is ready for its delivery phase.

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Case studies CIS Tower In the most dramatic NWDA backed green energy development in the region, Manchester is to get Europe’s largest vertical array of solar panels, designed to convert daylight into electricity, as three sides of the landmark CIS service tower, the city’s tallest building, will be clad with photovoltaic panels during 2005. The installation will create 180,000 units of renewable electricity each year – enough energy to make nine million cups of tea.

The £5.5 million solar project, the largest ever in the UK, is being supported by a £885,000 grant from the NWDA and a £175,000 grant from the Department of Trade and Industry.

Oxygenation at Salford Quays Water quality in the once heavily polluted Salford Quays is now so dramatically improved that its biodiversity is booming and it has some of the fastest growing fish in the country.

For the last three years liquid oxygen has been pumped into a 2km stretch of the canal at Salford Quays at the rate of 15 tonnes a day as part of a multi-million pound programme to bring the waters back to life.

The project is the first of its kind in the world and remains unique. It is part of a massive programme of action across England’s Northwest to improve water quality levels, which has also seen salmon returning to the river Mersey and led the Commonwealth Games to stage the triathlon in the waters of the Quays.

The oxygenation process and the research are the work of aquatic specialists APEM, working in partnership with the Mersey Basin Campaign, United Utilities, the Environment Agency and the Manchester Ship Canal Company. The project has been funded largely by £3.5 million from United Utilities, along with a £500,000 Millennium grant through English Partnerships.

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Conclusion

Delivering regional sustainable development

For the Northwest Regional Development Agency, a commitment to sustainable development and a better quality of life has always run, root and branch, through its operations and through the Regional Economic Strategy. As this report on ‘Nature’s Edge’ spells out, there are strong and tangible economic reasons for investing in a sustainable future, these can be grouped under five main headings:

One: regional image We are investing, with our partners, in the renewal of brownfield sites, in programmes of green space development and woodland creation. We aim to make this an increasingly green and pleasant region that ‘naturally’ attracts talent and investment.

Two: sustainable communities We are investing, with our partners, in

a better local environment and a better quality of life, crucial ingredients in the creation of sustainable communities where anyone can prosper.

Three: natural capital growth We are investing, with our partners, in the ‘capitalisation and conservation’ of our natural assets. From rare birds to national parks, the flora, fauna and landscapes of our region play a pivotal role in jobs in tourism, leisure and recreation.

Four: the environmental sector We are investing, with our partners, in the environmental sector. We want to see our region excel in key growth areas such as renewable energy, waste minimisation and recycling, sustainable construction, nuclear decommissioning and timber and forestry industries.

Five: a competitive advantage We are investing, with our partners, in improved business performance and competitiveness. We want to see efficiency savings ever-higher up the ‘value chain’, and encourage an environment where enterprise and innovation – not legislation – become the true drivers of an increasingly sustainable private sector.

These investments are being made not through an emotional attachment to ‘green’ issues but because the NWDA and its many partners understand that if we can deliver regional sustainable development, we can deliver a more prosperous and economically secure future for the seven million citizen’s of England’s Northwest.

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Find out more about…

A low carbon future – www.thecarbontrust.co.uk A regional waste minimisation initiative – www.envirolinknorthwest.co.uk Action for Sustainability – www.nwra.gov.uk/afs BREW – www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/brew Chester’s River Wall – www.chestercc.gov.uk CIS PV Tower – www.cis.co.uk CLAREN – www.claren.org.uk Clean Merseyside Centre – www.clean-merseyside.com Climate change and the visitor economy – www.snw.org.uk/tourism East Lancashire Regional Park – www.elp.org.uk Envirolink Northwest – www.envirolinknorthwest.co.uk NWDA Environment Action Plan – www.nwda.co.uk Environment-dependent tourism – www.englishnature.org.uk ENWORKS – www.enworks.com Farm Connect Cumbria – www.ruralcumbria.co.uk Government Office for the Northwest – www.go-nw.gov.uk ICREW and the quality of our bathing waters – www.icrew.org Industrial symbiosis and the chemicals sector – www.chemicalsnorthwest.org.uk Mersey Basin Campaign – www.merseybasin.org.uk Mersey Forest – www.merseyforest.org.uk Mersey Waterfront – www.merseywaterfront.com Newlands – www.forestry.gov.uk Northwest Regional Assembly – www.nwra.gov.uk Northwest Science Council – www.northwestscience.co.uk Nuclear Decommissioning Authority – www.nda.gov.uk Ocean WaveMaster – www.oceanwavemaster.com Operation Eden – www.operation-eden.org.uk Lake District National Park – www.lakedistrict.gov.uk Panopticons – www.panopticons.uk.net Red Rose Forest – www.redroseforest.co.uk Regional Forestry Framework – www.talkingtrees.org REMADE – www.lancashire.gov.uk/environment/remade RENEW – www.renew.co.uk Responsibility Northwest – www.snw.org.uk/responsibility REVIVE – www.cheshire.gov.uk/Planning/LandRegeneration REWARD – www.reward-uk.org Sustainability Northwest – www.snw.org.uk The Environment Agency – www.environment-agency.gov.uk The Forestry Commission – www.forestry.gov.uk The Mouth of the Weaver – www.merseybasin.org.uk The National Trust – www.nationaltrust.org.uk The Northern Way – www.thenorthernway.co.uk The Northwest business environment awards – www.merseybasin.org.uk Transformation of Waste to Products – www.envirolinknorthwest.co.uk Twitching and tourism – www.rspb.org.uk Wood is good: the forestry sector – www.forestry.gov.uk

Published June 2005 by the Northwest Regional Development Agency to coincide with World Environment Day. For more details about the Agency, its partnerships and regional activities around World Environment Day please go to one of the following websites: www.nwda.co.uk www.englandsnorthwest.com/sustainability www.worldenvironmentday.org And to make a direct contribution to the environment, you can also take the Environment Agency’s pledge for World Environment Day. Simply visit the following website to make your pledge: www.environment-agency.gov.uk/wed

Photography credits: • Front cover photo courtesy of NWDA • Inside front cover, and pages 10 & 11 photos courtesy of Cumbria Tourist Board • Page 3 top photo by Karen Wright • Page 3 lower photo and page 9 photo from The Mersey Forest • Pages 4 & 5 LIVIA panoramic photo by Jan Chlebik • Page 8 photo courtesy of the Lake District Osprey Project