Welcome to the Berkshire Local Nature Partnership (BLNP). We are working together to create a sustainable, healthy and vibrant Berkshire by promoting the conservation and enhancement of nature, and the benefits we receive from a healthy environment. We do this by:

  • creating a strategic vision for the natural environment in Berkshire
  • offering a single, unified voice for the natural environment in decision making
  • improving awareness of the challenges and opportunities facing nature
  • providing a network of advice and expertise relating to the environment

On this website you will be able to find out more about our Partnership, the services and benefits that we all receive from a healthy natural environment, the work that is already happening in Berkshire to protect our natural environment, why we must act now to protect it and how you can get involved to help us achieve our vision.

 

What do we mean by 'natural environment'?

The natural environment includes wildlife, lakes, rivers and man-made waterways, urban green space, open countryside, gardens, street trees, forests and farmed land. It underpins our survival and our prosperity, providing our food, our fuel, the air we breathe, and the water we drink. The natural environment includes natural systems that cycle our water, clean out pollutants, produce healthy soil, protect us from floods and regulate our climate. The term 'biodiversity' is often used to describe the variety and abundance of our natural environment.

 

What do we mean by 'natural services'?

Natural services are services or benefits that we receive from the natural environment. They include the provision of clean drinking water, decomposition of waste, the production of food, regulation of climate, and the provision of spaces for recreation. Many of these services and benefits are being assigned an economic value in order to inform decision making. These services are also known as 'ecosystem services' because they are provided by an ecosystem. Natural capital is the stock of natural ecosystems from which services are delivered.

 

RS4897 Oxe eye daisy with bee Nigel Smith-scr

Ox-eye daisy with bee by Nigel Smith

Header photo credits:

Kingfisher by Mervyn Chilton (Flickr )

Child writing poem by BBOWT

Cows by BlueSky Images 2013 (Flickr)

 

 

The objective of the Berkshire Local Nature Partnership is to promote the conservation and enhancement of Berkshire biodiversity.

What is Biodiversity?

It is simply a term meaning the variety and abundance of life on earth. It includes everything we consider to be 'nature'; trees, plants, mammals, birds, fish, insects and all the little things we can't see. It includes common habitats and species, such as urban parks and robins, to the rare and threatened natural areas, such as chalk grassland and its associated plants and insects.

More specifically we will achieve our objective by:

• Identifying and embedding local ecological networks (Making sure wildlife can move without obstruction).
• Helping to achieve a better range of outcomes through sustainable land management.
• Promoting the maintenance and enhancement of green infrastructure
• Helping to maintain the intrinsic character and beauty of the countryside
• Working with other local initiatives and plans on flooding and water quality
• Contribute to efforts to protect and improve public access to the countryside, nature and green space
• Helping to promote interest in, and uptake of, biodiversity offsetting
• Promoting green economic growth
• Contributing to quality of life and local health and wellbeing
• Working with other initiatives and partnerships

This will require a Berkshire wide strategy, being influential, and improving awareness of local issues.

In 2011 the Government released a Natural Environment White Paper. This paper explains how we can safeguard the natural areas that we all cherish and from which we derive vital services. A clear message of the White Paper is the need to work in a joined up, strategic way to help manage the natural environment. One way of achieving this is via Local Nature Partnerships, which can help the local area to manage the natural environment, and to embed its value in local decisions.


The Berkshire Nature Conservation Forum, which had been active in Berkshire for many years, initiated the formation of the Berkshire Local Nature Partnership. Many groups and organisations were consulted during the development of the Partnership, and an application to the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) was successful, giving official status to the Berkshire Local Nature Partnership in 2012.


The Berkshire Local Nature Partnership held its first meeting in November 2012, and since then has developed a governance structure, constitution including specific objectives and an initial work plan.

The Berkshire Local Nature Partnership has both an Executive Board and Steering Group and is supported by a number of local organisations.

 

The Executive Board:

Sam Cartwright (Chair) – BBOWT

Cllr Angus Ross - Wokingham Borough Council

Georgia Craig - National Farmers' Union (NFU)

Graham Scholey – Environment Agency

Prof. Simon Mortimer – Reading University

 

Steering Group:

Ian Crump (Chair) – Thames Water

Andy Glencross – Wokingham Borough Council

Dan Carpenter – Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre

Grahame Hawker – Butterfly Conservation

Giles Sutton – Reading Borough Council

Marlies Boydell - Bracknell Forest Council

Neil McLean – Agronomist

Duncan Fisher – Wokingham Borough Council 

Secretariat:

Filipa McGuinness – Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre

Treasurer:

Wokingham Borough Council

 

If you would like to be a part of the LNP and/or can offer support in any area, please get in touch.

The Berkshire Local Nature Partnership (LNP) include partners from the health education, local authority, business, and nature conservation sectors. We are working together to create a sustainable, healthy and vibrant Berkshire by promoting the conservation and enhancement of nature, and the benefits we receive from a healthy environment.

LNPs originate from the Government's Natural Environment White Paper 2011, 'The Natural Choice: securing the value of nature'. In the paper the Government recognised the importance of partnership work in delivering positive environmental change at a local level. The aim of the resulting 48 LNPs is to work within their local area, creating positive change through strategic, integrated management of the natural environment.