Government publishes guidance on what to include in Local Nature Recovery Strategies

The Government has published new guidance on what to include in Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS).

This statutory guidance explains what information responsible authorities should include in a LNRS. It explains what the law requires and gives additional information that the government wants the strategies to include.

It applies to any public body appointed as a ‘responsible authority’ by the Defra Secretary of State to produce a local nature recovery strategy for a specific area of England. It can also help prospective partner organisations to understand what the strategy should contain.

By law, responsible authorities must ‘have regard’ to this guidance when deciding what information to include in their strategy. This means they must read and consider the guidance when preparing, publishing, reviewing and republishing their strategy. They do not need to follow it rigidly but if they’re challenged, they would need to justify choosing to deviate from it.

Responsible authorities should read this guidance alongside the LNRS regulations. The regulations set out the process they must follow when they prepare, publish, review and republish their strategy.

In parallel, the Government has published its response to the consultation on LNRS, conducted in late 2021.