Local Nature Partnerships (England)

Local Nature Partnerships (LNPs) are a key Environment White Paper commitment. There are forty eight strategic partnerships consisting of a wide range of local organisations with members drawn from environmental, business, health, academic and land owning sectors providing almost total geographic coverage in England. Government was not prescriptive about LNP boundaries were defined. LNPs were encouraged to establish the most appropriate boundary for their area, whether ecological, administrative or a mixture of both. The majority of partnerships established themselves along administrative local authority boundaries with a number determined by a mix of of landscape level features and administrative boundaries and relatively few determined by ecological characteristics.LNPs work strategically to help their local area manage the natural environment. They aim to make sure that its value, and the value of the services it provides to the economy and the people who live there, is taken into account in local decisions, for example about planning and development.LNPs are also being encouraged to work at a large scale, which we call ‘landscape-scale’, and to identify Nature Improvement Areas using these criteria, found at this location (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criteria-to-apply-when-identifying-nature-improvement-area)