Cumbria Local Nature Recovery Strategy

Overview

Westmorland and Furness Council are leading the work on developing the Cumbria Local Nature Recovery Strategy. We are working closely with Cumberland Council, Natural England, Lake District National Park Authority and Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, and are supported by Cumbria Local Nature Partnership. Over 700 people have been involved in sharing their views about nature in Cumbria and helping to developing the draft priorities and measures for nature recovery, but it is important that we listen to as many people as possible to understand the most important environmental issues and to collaboratively agree the priorities which will help to tackle these issues. This is where we need your help.

What is the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS)?

Cumbria is one of 48 strategy areas that are required by the Environment Act to develop a LNRS for their area by March 2025. ​

The LNRS will aim to restore Cumbria’s wildlife by using existing data, strategies and guidance, alongside local knowledge, to ensure that nature recovery happens in a way that delivers maximum benefit. ​

Rather than a project plan, it is an agreed set of priorities and actions for habitat management and creation, and the identification of the most suitable locations for these.

Once it’s written, everyone in Cumbria will be able to use it to make sure that we are working together to create and manage wildlife habitat in a way that brings the most benefits to nature and to people.

Why your views matter

This is the second survey that we are running. Your voice matters. You are experts about this place. We want to know what is important to you and where you feel nature in Cumbria needs our help the most. We want this strategy to reflect what is important to the people of Cumbria and want to hear, why and where habitats or species should be prioritised. Your views will help shape our Local Nature Recovery Strategy, the issues it could address and what we could do to tackle them.

Please keep in mind when completing the survey that what we include must directly help nature, and it must be things that can be realistically achieved in the next 10 years. What you propose will be taken into consideration in the development of the strategy, but you should be aware that the LNRS will identify and map potential opportunities for nature recovery but there is no commitment to the delivery of nature recovery in proposed locations. This would involve further consideration of viability and any relevant consents or permissions, other constraints and restrictions, as well as funding as appropriate.

You can see the detailed draft priorities and measures here if you’d like more information on what has been proposed so far. These have been gathered from a variety of workshops over the last few months.

What's next?

We will listen to all comments and feedback from this survey and use it to help refine and shape our draft priorities and measures. We can’t promise you that things will change instantly, but we want to include your ideas to plan what to do next. Any new drafts will be available to view on our website.