Berkshire's Local Nature Recovery Strategy
The Berkshire Local
Nature Recovery
Strategy Public
Consultation is now
live!
Now is a really exciting time for nature.
We need to think about where Berkshire nature needs our help the most and how people can benefit from giving nature a hand. Help us decide.
Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs) are spatial strategies to recover nature across England: part of the 2021 Environment Act. Together, they will cover the country in a Nature Recovery Network (NRN).
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead are excited to be the Responsible Authority (RA) for our Berkshire LNRS. Bracknell, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire and Wokingham are supporting authorities with Natural England. They are helping to contribute to the strategy. Updates on the progress of the LNRS are posted below.
Visualisation of stakeholder views on Berkshire Nature Recovery. Credits to Natalie Ganpatsingh.
Each LNRS will map areas of current particular importance for biodiversity, and work with partners from many groups, from landowners to businesses, to eNGOs, and the public. Priorities for nature recovery will be agreed and these will be used to create a local habitat map. These will depict what needs to happen to achieve the agreed aims for nature. This will link up with delivery mechanisms, such as Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) for planning and Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes for land management including farming.
Find a blog here from Natural England for more information on Local Nature Recovery Strategies.
The Berkshire Local
Nature Recovery
Strategy Public
Consultation is now
live!
Now is a really exciting time for nature.
We need to think about where Berkshire nature needs our help the most and how people can benefit from giving nature a hand. Help us decide.
Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs) are spatial strategies to recover nature across England: part of the 2021 Environment Act. Together, they will cover the country in a Nature Recovery Network (NRN).
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead are excited to be the Responsible Authority (RA) for our Berkshire LNRS. Bracknell, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire and Wokingham are supporting authorities with Natural England. They are helping to contribute to the strategy. Updates on the progress of the LNRS are posted below.
Visualisation of stakeholder views on Berkshire Nature Recovery. Credits to Natalie Ganpatsingh.
Each LNRS will map areas of current particular importance for biodiversity, and work with partners from many groups, from landowners to businesses, to eNGOs, and the public. Priorities for nature recovery will be agreed and these will be used to create a local habitat map. These will depict what needs to happen to achieve the agreed aims for nature. This will link up with delivery mechanisms, such as Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) for planning and Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes for land management including farming.
Find a blog here from Natural England for more information on Local Nature Recovery Strategies.
Updates
Updates on the Local Nature Recovery Strategy regularly posted here.
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LNRS Policy Update
9 days agoSee the below DEFRA policy update regarding Local Nature Recovery Strategies.
https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2025/02/05/local-nature-recovery-strategies-have-your-say/
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Berkshire Nature Recovery Strategy approved for Public Consultation
3 months agoAt the end of November, the pre consultation draft of the LNRS was approved by the Supporting Authorities of Berkshire, subject to some changes. Namely, these are Reading Borough Council, Slough Borough Council, Wokingham Borough Council, Bracknell Forest Council, West Berkshire District Council and Natural England. This was an important milestone for the project. The LNRS is now being updated with response to comments by SAs, before moving to the Public Consultation phase.
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Pre Consultation Stage
4 months agoThe next Berkshire LNRS Phase!
We are excited to announce that the Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy has reached a big milestone. A draft version of the strategy has now entered the Pre Consultation Phase: our fantastic supporting authorities (Wokingham, Slough, West Berkshire, Bracknell and Reading Borough Councils plus Natural England) are reviewing the documents. It will then be on its way to Public Consultation.
This Public Consultation is planned to take place 2nd January - 15th February 2025. During this time, there will be an opportunity for the community of Berkshire to review the strategy documents in a public... Continue reading
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Call to action
8 months agoCall to action
We would like people to send the locations of parcels of land that would be suitable for additional nature recovery measures or management. This will help create a layer of areas more likely to be selected in our final map of prioritised locations.
This applies to landowners and land managers, but also to community groups and individuals planning nature projects in specific areas.
Please note, we are specifically looking for areas that could undertake nature recovery work, not areas which are already being managed for nature.
If you possess maps: as GIS layers, PDFs or a scan... Continue reading
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Our Data Prioritisation methodology
11 months agoAn important part of our Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy is the method of choosing which areas of Berkshire to prioritise for nature recovery. We cannot select everywhere: we have to decide where is most important to focus effort on first. Here in Berkshire, we decided to input priorities from all of our stakeholders (from our workshops and survey) and from documents existing on nature recovery from various councils, public bodies and NGOs, into a piece of software called Marxan. This undergoes a process called Systematic Conservation Planning.
More on Marxan
Marxan is a Decision Support software tool for conservation... Continue reading
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Farmer and Landowner Workshops completed
11 months agoOur three workshops for farmers, landowners, land managers and foresters have been completed.
Below is a map of where representatives at the workshops managed land across Berkshire
We saw representatives from the following sectors:
Central Berkshire - (29 attendees)
- Parish council representatives
- Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust Representatives
- Ecologists– Reading Borough Council
- Farmers/Landowners x 5
- BioCap
- Forestry Commission
- University of Reading – agro-environment group x3
- Farmer cluster facilitator
- Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead officers – Natural Environment Team and Equalities and Diversity team
- Berkshire College of Agriculture
- Atomic Weapons Establishment ecologist
East Berkshire - (48 attendees)
- Ecologists Slough... Continue reading
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Community workshops launched
12 months agoWe are excited to make our seven community workshops, plus our survey, live today. These are opportunities for residents, community groups, businesses and NGOs to have their say on their priorities for nature recovery in Berkshire. -
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More workshops coming
about 1 year ago- 6 free Borough specific engagement events are being planned for April. These will be promoted to the public, community groups, harder to reach groups, businesses etc). These will primarily stakeholder collect priorities for nature. There will be light refreshments provided. These will be run in conjunction with a local group, e.g. the Wokingham event with Earley Environmental Group. The West Berks event may be held at the BBOWT Thatcham Nature Discovery Centre. These will include stakeholders from different disciplines. Stakeholder engagement working group is contributing to the design of these. A stakeholder engagement plan has been drafted by Just Ideas.
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Workshops live!
about 1 year ago- 3 free farmer/landowner engagement workshops are now live: Wasing Estate, Windsor Great Park and Reading University Farm for farmer landowner workshops (18th, 12th and 6th March respectively). These will be catered. Opportunities to discuss priorities for nature, learn about LNRS and BNG, and to register interest in land being included in the LNRS. Farmer engagement working group is contributing to planning and advertisement of these workshops.
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Engagement survey closed
about 1 year ago- Our engagement survey has closed and analysis has been undertaken, assisting workshop design – locations and timings of workshops, other community events to present the LNRS at.
Lifecycle
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Phase 1 (September-December 2023)
Berkshire's Local Nature Recovery Strategy has finished this stageInitial engagement with stakeholders across Berkshire, through webinars, talks and a survey asking how people would like to engage.
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Phase 2 (March- April 2024)
Berkshire's Local Nature Recovery Strategy has finished this stageSecond round of engagement with stakeholders: finding out priorities for nature recovery across Berkshire, and measures to achieve this. Engagement done through a survey and 10 workshops (3 for farmers and landowners and 6 for the wider public). An online map is live for people to pin point biodiversity sites and opportunities for nature recovery.
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Phase 3 (June 2024)
Berkshire's Local Nature Recovery Strategy has finished this stageA webinar to present a first look at the collaborative targets from responses to workshops and survey. We will show the process that we are using to translate your priorities into a map of Berkshire, and hear your thoughts.
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Phase 4 (July to October)
Berkshire's Local Nature Recovery Strategy has finished this stageFinalising the Priorities and Measures and creating the Opportunity Map. Setting targets for nature recovery, running the Marxan programme and reviewing results with stakeholder groups.
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Phase 5 (November-May 25)
Berkshire's Local Nature Recovery Strategy is currently at this stageThe sign off process. A formal public consultation to see the drafted map and documents including a list of priorities created for the county. You can tell us what you think before we finalise the strategy. Phase also includes sign off from other Supporting Authorities and internally within the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (the Responsible Authority).
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Finalisation of strategy (June-July 25)
this is an upcoming stage for Berkshire's Local Nature Recovery StrategyOnline publication of the finished Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Berkshire.
Progress Update Webinar slides
Progress Update Webinar Link
Documents
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LNRS Supporting Authority Factsheet.pdf (327 KB) (pdf)
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FAQs for planners across Berkshire
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FAQs - (Questions from Introductory Webinars).pdf (353 KB) (pdf)
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Public copy of LNRS_Berks_SpeciesLongList_Final.xlsx (263 KB) (xlsx)
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Explanations and examples of habitats (1).pdf (1.02 MB) (pdf)
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Visualisation of stakeholder vision for Berkshire (13.1 MB) (pdf)
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Example Habitat Assemblages.docx (13.6 KB) (docx)
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Copy for habitat explanations with HAB definitions -- Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy.pdf (178 KB) (pdf)
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Species Priorities Shortlist
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Further information for planners
Sign up to our mailing list
Responsible Authority
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Email bnc@rbwm.gov.uk
Supporting Authorities
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Supporting Authority
BF -
Supporting Authority
RB -
Supporting Authority
SB -
Supporting Authority
WB -
Supporting Authority
Email ecology@wokingham.gov.uk
Stakeholder Engagement Results
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Bracknell workshop draft summary of info 100424.pdf (616 KB) (pdf)
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Maidenhead workshop draft summary of info 080424.pdf (619 KB) (pdf)
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Wokingham workshop draft summary of info 200424.docx (23.9 MB) (docx)
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Slough workshop draft summary of info 160424.pdf (753 KB) (pdf)
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West Berks workshop draft summary of info 230424.pdf (705 KB) (pdf)
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Reading workshop draft summary of info 250424.pdf (877 KB) (pdf)
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Central Berks Farmers.Landowners Workshop Summary of info.pdf (484 KB) (pdf)
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West Berks Farmers.Landowners Workshop Summary of info.pdf (408 KB) (pdf)
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East Berks Farmers.Landowners Workshop Summary of info.pdf (401 KB) (pdf)
Archive of newsletters
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Berkshire Nature Recovery February 25 update
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Berkshire Nature Recovery - December 24 update
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Berkshire Nature Recovery - October 24 update
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Berkshire Nature Recovery - August 24 update
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Berkshire Nature Recovery - June 24 update
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Berkshire Nature Recovery - May 24 update
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Berkshire Nature Recovery April 24 update
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Berkshire Nature Recovery March 24 update
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Berkshire Nature Recovery February 24 update
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Berkshire Nature Recovery January 24 update
Berkshire Nature Recovery Media features
Introductory Webinars - Slides
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Berkshire Nature Recovery Introductory Webinar - Farmers, Landowners, Foresters and Land managers.pdf (2.3 MB) (pdf)
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Berkshire Nature Recovery Introductory Webinars - Interested Residents.pdf (2.28 MB) (pdf)
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Berkshire Nature Recovery Introductory Webinars - NGOs.pdf (2.31 MB) (pdf)
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Berkshire Nature Recovery Introductory Webinars - Councillors.pdf (2.21 MB) (pdf)
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Berkshire Nature Recovery Introductory Webinars - Public Bodies.pdf (2.31 MB) (pdf)
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Berkshire Nature Recovery Introductory Webinars - Businesses.pdf (2.28 MB) (pdf)
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Berkshire Nature Recovery Introductory Webinars - Developers.pdf (2.25 MB) (pdf)
Introductory Webinars - Recordings
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Click here to play video Interested Residents An introductory video to the Berkshire Nature Recovery Strategy, specifically for those representing local residents of Berkshire.
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Click here to play video NGOs An introductory video to the Berkshire Nature Recovery Strategy, specifically for those representing NGOs
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Click here to play video Farmers, Landowners, Foresters and Farmers An introductory video to the Berkshire Nature Recovery Strategy, specifically for those representing local farmers, landowners, foresters and land managers.
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Click here to play video Town and Parish councils An introductory video to the Berkshire Nature Recovery Strategy, specifically for those representing local borough, town and parish councils.
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Click here to play video Businesses An introductory video to the Berkshire Nature Recovery Strategy, specifically for those representing local businesses.