Communities user guide (LNRS)

Communities have a crucial role to play in recovering nature across Suffolk and Norfolk. Whether through embedding nature-friendly gardening practices at home, volunteering at a nature recovery scheme or getting involved with community greenspaces, there’s plenty of ways you can make a difference locally.

What are the Local Nature Recovery Strategies?

The Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs) are guides that can help you make more and better-quality spaces for nature. The LNRSs do not force anyone to make changes to their land and cannot add new protections or designations to land.

The LNRSs are made up of two components:

How can the Local Nature Recovery Strategies help?

Use the Local Nature Recovery Strategies to see what already exists in your area, decide on actions to take and tell us what you’ve done.

Explore the map

The Local Habitat Map shows:

• Where areas are that already good for nature. On the map, this layer is called Areas of Particular Importance to Biodiversity (APIB)).
• Which areas could become really good for nature if the suggested recovery actions are taken. On the map, this layer is called Areas that Could Become of Particular Importance to Biodiversity (ACB).
• The actions and places we are suggesting work could have the greatest impact for nature recovery. These are called Potential Measures.

If your area is not mapped it does not mean that nature recovery work is not important. You can still use the map to see what actions are suggested nearby and consider doing similar to increase habitat connectivity or focus on unmapped measures.

Unmapped measures

There are actions which were not possible to map because they are not specific to a certain location. These are called ‘unmapped measures’. Many of these are actions for the urban and built environment, including increasing urban tree cover and wildlife-friendly gardening. You can implement these regardless of whether land is mapped or not.

Dive into the strategy document

Part C: Suffolk's Priority Habitats, Assemblages and Species of the Local Nature Recovery Strategies contains detailed information about the specific action you can do to help different spaces, animals and plants.

Part C is divided into three sections:

• Actions for habitats. If you know that you want to do work to restore or strengthen a specific habitat this section is for you.
• Actions for habitat-based assemblages. Habitat-based assemblages are groups of different plants and animals that are found in a specific place for example wetlands, urban environments. You can measure the health and condition of the place by the prevalence (or lack) of the species. For each assemblage we’ve selected flagship species that symbolise the importance of the habitat and have provided actions on how they can be helped in addition to actions for supporting additional species in the assemblage.
• Actions for key species. The LNRSs have set priority species for Suffolk and Norfolk. These are animals and plants that found locally and are struggling. If you want to help a specific species, this section lists the different actions you can take.

Wider benefits of nature recovery

The importance of nature recovery goes well beyond the direct impact for wildlife. There are so many benefits for us, our communities and our wider environment. Trees, ponds, wetlands and other habitats can keep us cool in hot weather and reduce the risk of flooding during periods of heavy rain. Wildflower meadows and margins can help with crop pollination. Spending time in nature improves our mental and physical wellbeing.

At the bottom of each table, the relevant co-benefits and wider environmental benefits and for the actions are listed. You can read more about the co-benefits in Part B: Opportunities Identified of the strategy document.

Resources and support

Want to get involved in volunteering? The Norfolk and Suffolk Nature Recovery Partnership has a list of the organisations and projects looking for volunteers across Suffolk and Norfolk.

Looking for an existing local community group? TCV, Norfolk Wildlife Trust and Suffolk Wildlife Trust have networks of community groups across the two counties.

Thinking about setting up your own group? The Wildlife Trust’s Community Hub has practical tips and advice for getting started.

The LNRSs suggest different actions you can take in your home from planting pollinator friendly flower to building a hedgehog home, Suffolk Wildlife Trust has step by step instructions on how to do these.

Want to respond to a planning application, create a neighbourhood plan or you’re your churchyard more wildlife-friendly? Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s In your community page has guides and tips for you.