Title:	Potential nature recovery workshop
Author:	Richard Benwell
Date:	13/12/2023

Summary:

This paper proposes a theme for a workshop, at which partners would agree the local narrative for our vision, identify major projects, and promote these widely in advance of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy.

The Board is asked to:

Support the proposed event, and contribute thoughts regarding agenda, attendance and format.

Local Nature Recovery Strategies are intended to guide investment and decision-making for nature, informed by ecological need and local know-how and preferences. However, LNRSs are unlikely to be agreed and operational before 2025.

In the meantime, many important decisions will be made regarding the future of nature, including: funding (such as Landscape Recovery funds); strategic planning (such as a Land Use Framework and further major infrastructure plans); and designations (such as a new National Park and National Nature Reserves). There is also likely to be a notable expansion in private nature markets for carbon, nutrients and biodiversity gain.

Some areas in England are already successfully identifying strategic projects and compelling nature-recovery narratives, which will steer some of these decisions and opportunities. For example, the Fens, the Levels and the Peaks all have well-recognised “stories”, which have captured local and national interest.

There are already many exciting nature-recovery proposals in Oxfordshire, and an excellent level of understanding of ecological need. This workshop would ask whether there is more to do in identifying strategic projects, threading them into an Oxfordshire narrative, and promoting that story more widely in advance of the agreement of the LNRS.