Sussex Nature Recovery

A collective blueprint for targeted action

East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton & Hove are home to wondrous and iconic wildlife including internationally rare habitats and species. But like the rest of the UK, nature in Sussex urgently needs our help.

Local Nature Recovery Strategies are a new approach to help us do that, and everyone in Sussex can take part.

A collective blueprint for targeted action

Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) are a statutory requirement from the Environment Act 2021. Their aim is to protect the important places for nature that are left, and identify the opportunities to restore or create it, where it can have the most benefit for wildlife and people.

48 strategies are being prepared at the county level to cover the whole of England. There will be one LNRS for West Sussex and one for East Sussex covering Brighton & Hove.

Residents, community groups, land managers and organisations in Sussex will be invited to create shared priorities for nature’s recovery and identify the actions that can be taken to deliver them. These collaboratively produced blueprints will show where there’s a need and the appetite to recover important habitats and species to target funding, investment and action!

Find out more

Bluebells in Sussex by Derek Middleton Copyright @Sussex Wildlife Trust

Why LNRS are needed

Spending time in nature is good for our health and wellbeing. It gives us our food and water, supports jobs and the economy, and provides other things we may take for granted: clean air, clean water, the regulation of our climate, protection from flooding and much more.

But nature desperately needs our help. One in six of our UK species are at risk of extinction. Nearly half of our wildlife has been lost since the 1970s and the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. (State of Nature Report 2023)

Coordination and collaboration are needed at the local level to maximise efforts and agree where and how to act.

How LNRS will be developed in 6 steps

Though every LNRS around the country will be unique to the area it covers, they all follow a process set out by Defra. The key stages are below.

1. Baseline information created

This will show where important areas for nature (such as nature reserves) are currently located in Sussex. It will also draw from ecological data to describe the condition of key Sussex habitats and species, the pressures they face, and the opportunities to improve or create them.