Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
#1
New nature zones named
New nature zones covering hundreds of thousands of hectares are to be set up across England, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman has announced.
The 12 Nature Improvement Areas (NIA) will each get a share of £7.5m to create wildlife havens, restore habitats and encourage local people to get involved with nature. The successful NIAs have been chosen from among 76 groups who competed to receive funding for their projects.
The minister said: "Each of these projects has something different to offer - from the urban areas of Birmingham and the Black Country to the rivers and woods of North Devon; from marshes, coalfields and wetlands to woodland and arable chalkland and grassland."
The NIAs were awarded funding by a panel of experts, led by Professor Sir John Lawton, and were a key commitment of the Natural Environment White Paper.
The 12 NIAs will be:
Birmingham and the Black Country Living Landscape: includes urban, wetland, river and heath habitats
Dark Peak: includes moorland and woodland in the Peak District National Park
Dearne Valley Green Heart: mostly on farmland and former mining settlements with woodland and wetland
Greater Thames Marshes: includes agricultural marsh and urban habitats
Humberhead Levels: straddling Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, mainly wetland, lowland and peat habitats
Marlborough Downs: predominantly a farmer-led partnership looking to restore chalk and grassland habitats
Meres and Mosses of the Marches: incorporates wetlands, peat bogs and ponds in Cheshire
Morecambe Bay Limestones and Wetlands: the most northerly NIA, limestone, wetland and grassland habitats
Nene Valley: within the River Nene regional park, project will work with farmers to restore habitats and restore tributaries and reaches of the River Nene;
Northern Devon: incorporates river, woodland and grassland;
South Downs Way Ahead: encompasses key chalk sites of the South Downs National Park. The NIA will restore 1,000 hectares of chalk grassland;
Wild Purbeck: a variety of river, wetland, heath and woodland habitat as well as the largest onshore oil field in Western Europe.
The 12 Government-funded NIAs will be delivered by a variety of partnerships of local bodies, including ones led by farmers, NGOs, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a National Park.
Ministers have made clear their ambition to see further NIAs wherever the opportunities or benefits are the greatest and driven by local knowledge. The option for local authorities to recognise an NIA in their local plan is a continuation of current planning policy, the administration has stressed.
Defra has emphasised that it is up to local authorities to decide what weight they wish to give to NIAs in their local plans.
Roger Milne
1 March 2012
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#2
this was touched upon in the "conservation" thread, unless i have missed something there doesn't see any dosh coming our way.
good luck to those who will get a grant.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
#3
howard,the nearest one us is the greater thames marshes.
Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
#4
I must say I was very disappointed to see that our own area, with its unique to the British Isles chalk downland, was not included. Was this an oversight or a lack of promotion by local authorities and bodies?
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#5
i had no idea that there was dosh to be handed around for these projects until i saw it in the paper a few days ago.
Guest 703- Registered: 30 Jul 2010
- Posts: 2,096
#6
Chris, just had a look at DEFRA and Natural England websites and there were 76 applications with 20 short-listed so there might have been a local application that got turned down.
Guest 703- Registered: 30 Jul 2010
- Posts: 2,096
#7
Just had another look at the process and requirements which was a very short time scale for this sort of grant.
At a conference for the second stage of the application one of the presentations from Heritage Lottery Fund showed the Landscape Partnership scheme with our White Cliffs one that was mentioned on here recently flagged up, so it probably meant there was no application for this scheme as it would duplicate a lot of what was already in the pipeline. Just a guess.