Landowners, managers and farmers user guide (LNRS)

Landowners, managers and farmers know their land better than anyone. With around 70% of land in Suffolk and Norfolk being used for agriculture, there’s a lot of opportunity to produce food while supporting nature.

A thriving natural world cleans our air and water, boosts crop pollination and mitigates against extreme weather like flooding and droughts.

What the LNRS does

The Local Nature Recovery Strategies are designed to help you identify options for nature recovery actions on your land, link these to suitable funding streams and join up with others to increase the scale of the work.

The LNRS is a guide. No one is required to do the suggested actions and the LNRS does not stop anyone from using their land for other purposes, such as food production. The LNRS also cannot create any new designations. Even if your land is mapped, nothing changes unless you want to make changes.

Explore the map

We have mapped where action could have the greatest impact for nature recovery. Use your address to search the map then view actions by habitat, species or wider environmental benefits.

If land you own or manage is mapped, consider how you could action the suggested measures. For many sites there are multiple different measures suggested allowing you to choose which aligns best with your plans. You can access more information about the suggested actions in ‘Part C’ of the strategy document.

The maps were created using detailed analysis of existing data. As the maps cover all of Suffolk and Norfolk, we were not able verify the information via surveys on the ground. They should be used as a starting point to identify potential opportunities, rather than as a definitive guide. Before making decisions or undertaking any work it is important to seek expert advice and look at site-specific conditions to ensure that it is the right action for the right place.

If your land 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.

Unmapped measures

There are actions which were not possible to map. These are called ‘unmapped measures’. Many of these, such as planting hedgerows, are relevant to farmed landscape and can be actioned regardless of whether your land is mapped or not.

Dashboards

Dashboards give a localised snapshot of the information in the map – showing how much land is already important for nature, what percentage of the area could and the potential actions among other things. You can filter by ward, parish, district, catchment, national landscape and more.

Funding

Biodiversity net-gain

If land that you own or manage has been mapped as a priority location in the LNRS, then you could receive 1.15x more Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) units for creating or improving habitats in these areas.

Where to go for more information and advice

Suffolk’s LNRS was created in collaboration with a wide range of partners including landowners and managers, charities and government agencies. Many of these have specific advice and information for incorporating the LNRS into your business.

We worked with Suffolk FWAG to develop the strategy and they are an excellent source of information and advice

CLC is an umbrella organisation providing support for the farm clusters and Landscape Recovery projects working across Norfolk and Suffolk

The National Farmers Union (NFU) has information on what LNRSs mean for farmers and landowners.

The CLA has written a piece on how the LNRSs can unlock new opportunities for your rural business.

Access free farm wildlife advice from Suffolk Wildlife Trust.

Norfolk Wildlife Trust has information on managing the landscape for wildlife.

The Government also has information on LNRSs on GOV.UK that you can read.