Nature Recovery Strategy being drawn-up to create and improve habitats in Hertfordshire

A LOCAL Nature Recovery Strategy is being drawn-up by the county council, in a bid to create or improve habitats around Hertfordshire.

The county council is one of 50 local authorities nationwide that have been tasked with designing strategies that could make the biggest change.

And as part of the work they will identify locations to create – or improve – habitat ‘most likely to provide the greatest benefit for nature and the wider environment’.

At a meeting of the council’s sustainable economic growth cabinet panel, on Wednesday (June 14), councillors heard that owners or managers of the land identified will not be forced to make any changes.

But, it was reported that the government would instead be encouraging action through other means – such as opportunities for funding and investment.

As well as enabling a ‘biodiversity increase for biodiversity’s sake’, the work will map sites where recovery – or enhancement – of biodiversity can contribute towards other environmental benefits.

That will include the identification and mapping of ‘nature based solutions’, including natural flood risk management, carbon sequestration, cleaner air, reducing water pollution and low carbon energy generation.

And ultimately it should lead to the launch of a publicly accessible ‘multi-layered on line map tool’.

That tool, it was reported to councillors, would allow users to identify where the greatest gains could be delivered.

And it would, according to the report, optimise the selection of locations for future projects, that provide the greatest outcome for nature and the county

As well as being use within the planning process, the strategy could support the identification of opportunities and funding streams to maximise opportunities for Biodiversity Net Gain, farming incentives and environmental net gain initiatives more generally.

Councillors heard that the county council was required to set up a Herts Nature Recovery Partnership, to oversee the preparation and delivery of the strategy.

And councillors were told possible members of the Partnership board could include organisations such as The Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, the Herts Growth Board, the Hertfordshire Leaders Group, Chamber of Commerce, Association of Parish and Town Councils and the Health and Wellbeing Board.

The council would be expected to contribute to the delivery of the strategy – but not solely responsible for it.