Nature Improvement Areas: Joining up nature in practice – making ecological coherence a reality Brian McDonald, Natural England Wednesday, 15 June 2016
Aim to address: • How the projects funded under the NIA programme were selected – i.e. what were the criteria for their positive assessment – policies, pressures, priorities, opportunities? • Examples of the NIA’s and what they were seeking to achieve; habitat, species, connectivity, ecosystem function, ecosystem services … what worked? • The likely future of using these approaches – how are these being sustained ? • What do we as practitioners need to be thinking about in applying these approaches – is anything different?
Nature Improvement Areas (NIA) • NIA Competition announced in 2011 and component of Natural Environment White Paper. Each NIA should be of between 10,000 and 50,000 ha to contribute to the ambition outlined in Making Space For Nature for Ecological Restoration. NIAs are a key component of the Biodiversity 2020 strategy. • The 12 i nitial NIAs receive a share of £7.5 Million from NE & Defra funding over 3 years (2012-15) • NE, FC and EA have been instructed to positively engage with NIAs to ensure their success – each organisation ... to maximise collaboration in these areas • 12 initial NIAs cover Approx. 500,000 ha’s of land area - delivery started 1 April 2012. All have multiple partners, working to integrate delivery at a landscape scale. • Local Nature Partnerships can identify locally determined NIAs, working to NIA criteria, to use M&E Framework ... but without, or limited, NE/Defra funding. Three year Monitoring and Evaluation Report published January 2016 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nature-improvement-areas-thousands-more-hectares-for-our-wildlife
Launch Competition July 2011 Stage 1 Applications 1 April 2012 submitted by 30 Sept NIA project Start 2011 By 31 Oct 2011 By end of Feb 2012 final All decisions notified. Nature Improvement decisions communicated Successful projects go onto to applicants 2nd Stage Areas (NIAs) Competitive Grant Scheme 4 November Week commencing 6 Feb 2nd Stage applicants 2012 Workshop Stage 3 Presentations 16 Dec 2011 deadline By 31 Jan 2012 Decisons for 2nd stage notified to applicants applications
76 Applications in England – Nature Improvement Area, stage two reduced to Top twenty
Fifteen finalists – x factor final…. The Twelve Winners !
NIAs should contain all these components of an ecological network: • Core areas, especially existing wildlife sites (National Nature Reserves, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Local Nature Reserves, Local Wildlife Sites, and other semi-natural areas of high ecological quality); • Corridors and stepping stones; • Restoration areas, where priority habitats are created to provide (in time) more core areas; • Buffer zones, that reduce pressures on core areas; • Surrounding land that is sustainably managed, including for food production, in a wildlife friendly way.
What are the characteristics of Nature Improvement Areas? Although the characteristics of NIAs will vary across the country according to what is possible and what is needed, these will be places where: • Opportunities to deliver ecological networks, both in terms of large area and scale and valuable benefits to wildlife and people, are particularly high, taking account of relevant evidence. • Significant improvements to the ecological network can be achieved over large areas by enlarging and enhancing existing wildlife sites, improving ecological connectivity and/or creating new sites; • The surrounding land use can be better integrated with valued landscapes and action to restore wildlife habitats and underpinning natural processes, helping to adapt to climate change impacts; • Benefits to urban areas and communities can be achieved and, where appropriate, NIAs may contain urban areas as part of an enhanced ecological network; • “Win - win‟ opportunities are identified and have the potential to be exploited to the full to derive multiple benefits, for example with benefits for the water environment and Water Framework Directive objectives, flood and coastal erosion risk management and the low-carbon economy; • There are opportunities to inspire people through an enhanced experience of the outside world. Who Can Apply Partnerships/consortia that involve: Local government/planning authorities (including National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty), significant private landowners, environmental Non Government Organisations (NGOs) with land holdings (The Wildlife Trust (TWT), The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Woodland Trust etc.), other NGOs or environmental bodies, community and social enterprises, town and parish councils, private sector, with involvement from Environment Agency (EA), Forestry Commission (FC) and Natural England (NE). Who can’t Apply Individuals or lone organisations.
What we will look for in a bid? Land/area: • comprise a large area, probably greater than 10,000 ha, unless the proposal fits to some smaller obvious ecological boundary. To reduce the risk of effort being spread too thinly, partnerships should avoid proposing very large areas (e.g. in excess of 50,000 ha) unless they can convincingly demonstrate that significant enhancements are likely to be achieved throughout the NIA; • include a variety of land uses, and may include urban areas; • provide opportunities to enhance the functioning of ecological processes, facilitate adaptation to climate change and provide wider ecosystem services; and • link with any existing landscape-scale initiatives in the vicinity, and/or with other recognised areas for enhancement (such as biodiversity opportunity areas). Activities: NIA partnerships will be able to use their funding to support the following types of activities: • projects that will make significant enhancements to existing wildlife sites or other network components, particularly those identified as national or local biodiversity priorities (such as hedgerows and rivers); • action to enhance the local ecological network, such as by enlarging existing sites, creating or restoring new wildlife habitat, and establishing corridors, stepping stones or buffer zones; • projects that have regard for the conservation of soils, geo-diversity and valued landscapes; • actions that facilitate adaption to climate change; • enhancements of a range of ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration and water management helping to meet climate change and Water Framework Directive objectives; • projects that involve innovation, such as incorporating payments for ecosystem services or piloting biodiversity offsets; • where projects include significant urban areas, they will enhance green infrastructure (e.g. by retrofitting green roofs, sustainable drainage, improved access to nature).
Level of delivery: • We will take account of the extent to which the NIA proposal demonstrates quantifiable benefits to the natural environment: • improve existing wildlife sites, including SSSIs and Local Wildlife Sites (e.g. improving the area in favourable or recovering condition); • improve areas of non-designated wildlife habitat or bring these areas under conservation management; • the area of priority habitat2 expanded or restored both as new restoration areas (new wildlife sites) and as extensions to existing wildlife sites; • the area of habitat, or extent of other habitat features, created or restored which increases ecological connectivity and reduces habitat vulnerability to future change; • improvements through the conservation of soils, geo-diversity and valued landscapes; • enhancements of a range of ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration and water management helping to meet climate change and Water Framework Directive objectives Although aims for NIAs should be ambitious, they need to be realistic and based on a sound evidence base (Defra agencies will support the provision of this if required).
Overall aims of an NIA : • Become much better places for wildlife – creating more and better habitats over large areas which provide the space for wildlife to thrive and adapt to climate change • Deliver for people as well as wildlife – enhancing a wide range of benefits that nature provides such as recreation, flood protection, clean water, carbon storage • Unite local communities, land managers and business through a shared vision for better future for people and wildlife. The hope is they become places of inspiration loved by current and future generations. Locally determined NIAs In addition to the 12 national NIAs, local nature partnerships and local planning authorities can identify and agree where locally determined NIAs can be set up. Locally determined NIAs are encouraged to apply the criteria, the monitoring and evaluation framework and lessons learnt from the 12 initial NIAs to assist their development and progress. For more information see the criteria for locally determined NIAs.
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