Priority Actions

The plan covers a broad range of natural environment projects focusing on tree and hedgerow planting, improving access to green space for all communities across the West Midlands and developing our wildlife corridors. The aim is to improve these environments in their own right, promoting biodiversity net gain, as well as for all the region’s communities to enjoy. It also covers a number of enabling actions that will need to be put into place in order to ensure these actions are achieved (for example, securing financing and behaviour change initiatives).

The actions that we propose taking fall under the following themes:

Widening access to green and blue spaces for all communities across the West Midlands, initially focusing on places where there is a deficit of access.
Increasing tree and hedgerow planting, but with an emphasis on ‘right tree, right place’, to support climate mitigation and adaptation.
Promoting wildlife corridors and working with natural corridors (both green and blue) as well as those linked to infrastructure projects, e.g. along cycle ways.
Recognising the importance of the enablers of change and supporting activity around financing and behaviour change that will enable the roll out, impact and scalability of the initiatives in this plan.

These themes, and how we will deliver them, are covered in more detail in the following sections of the document. Each theme proposes a flagship project that the West Midlands Combined Authority will lead, as well as other projects where we will work alongside regional partners. A more detailed breakdown of the actions can be found in Appendix 1.

Access to green and blue spaces

We know that there are considerable benefits from the natural environment for physical and mental health, as well as for reducing carbon and adapting to increasingly extreme weather events caused by climate change.

The UK National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA), funded by NERC, estimates the health benefits of living with a view of a green space are worth up to £300 per person per year, and that increasing green spaces could reduce run-off and urban flooding which costs around £270 million a year in England and Wales. Further, recent research by the RSPB15 shows that ‘people in the UK with an annual household income under £10,000 are 3.6 times more likely to have no outdoor space where they live, and about 40% less likely to live within a 10-minute walk of any publicly accessible natural greenspace than people with a household income of £60,000 or more’.

Research by Fields in Trust, using the 2020 Green Space Index16, finds there is the equivalent of 32.94 square metres (sqm) of publicly accessible park and green space provision per person in Great Britain. But as population increases, by 2040 this figure will reduce by 7.57% to 30.44 sqm per person. In the West Midlands, this same data shows significant variation across the Combined Authority area and, by 2040, the data is showing that the West Midlands will fall below the minimum standard of provision. We are determined to reverse this trajectory by taking action to improve availability of high-quality green and blue space to all people across the West Midlands through the actions described below.

We will also work with emerging standards being developed by other organisations, e.g. Natural England's Access to Natural Greenspace Standard and the Woodland Trust's Access to Woodland Standard.

WMCA-led flagship programme

Community Green Grants

Using data that WMCA and other regional partners have available, we know that access to green space is not equitable, a situation that has been brought into sharp relief during the Covid-19 lockdowns. The data shows the neighbourhoods where there is currently deficit of access to green space and we are seeking to work with delivery partners across the West Midlands to provide community green grants to roll out projects to create, enhance and improve access.

In response to the evidence base provided by the Five Year Plan, the WMCA Board committed £725,000 to support regional organisations and communities in delivering projects associated with widening access
to nature and green space. It is anticipated the grant will launch in autumn 2021 for an initial two years, although the intention is to find ways to extend the grants to continue to support this important area of work.

Priority Actions

Continue to work with the West Midlands National Park to transform their vision into practical action, encouraging new projects with an awards programme
Create a new national trail in the West Midlands, working with local authorities, national organisations (like the National Trust, Canal and River Trust and Natural England) and walking groups.
Develop a plan for including green infrastructure as part of the transport network at project development stage e.g. green roofs on shelters, semi-natural habitat into verges or leftover land.
Creation and enhancement of urban meadows to increase biodiversity and amenity value
of under-used open spaces whilst reducing maintenance costs.
We will also work to support regional projects that improve access to green space, where these align with our vision for the region’s natural environment ambitions, for example:

The opportunity to open the Duddeston Viaduct in Digbeth as a public green walkway.
The Black Country programme of nature and visitor improvements to go alongside the new UNESCO Global Geopark status.

Case Studies

Tame Valley Wetlands

Tame Valley Wetlands (TVW) is a strategic partnership established by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust in 2005, which oversees the delivery of environmental enhancements across the Tame Valley Wetlands Nature Improvement Area (NIA). The NIA includes the most extensive area of interconnected wetlands in the West Midlands straddling Tamworth, North Warwickshire, Solihull and Birmingham. The area is exceptionally important for both wildlife and people and it includes some of the key green spaces adjoining the conurbation such as Kingsbury Water Park, Middleton Lakes and Kingfisher Country Park. The vision is:

By 2030, the Tame Valley Wetlands will be a high quality, well- known and valued landscape, rich in wildlife, beauty and culture for all to enjoy.

The four key aims are to:

Landscape scale habitat creation and management
Maximising opportunities from strategic planning
Community engagement and ownership
Training and skills

In 2014 the partnership was awarded £2.5 million funding through Heritage Lottery Fund (now NLHF) to deliver a range of environmental enhancements across the area including:

Over 600m of river restoration
16 ha wetland restoration
1,196 hedgegrows
offering educational sessions to 3190 children
5362 people participating in events and training

Further funding through schemes such as ERDF’s Water Environment Grant and GBSLEP Small Habitats Grant has allowed further enhancement works to be carried out on the wider Tame catchment on the rivers Cole and Blythe, both key tributaries of the River Tame. This has included sustainable urban drainage schemes and invasive species control at Brueton Park, Earlswood and Meriden Park in Solihull.

At a more strategic level the partnership has been involved in the West Midlands National Park and Birmingham City University’s Project Saturn. The partnership co-commissioned with the Environment Agency a strategic vision for the River Cole and secured £707,000 from Defra’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund for the Love Your River Cole Project (LYRiC). TVW are working closely with Birmingham and Solihull Councils and The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country and other partners to deliver a range of enhancements along 17km of the River Cole. A major element of the project has been working with the Princes Trust to develop and deliver a range of learning opportunities for 144 18-24 year olds and provide them with skills to pursue a career in the green economy. The partners are also hosting 6 trainees from across the West Midlands.

TVW continues to offer a wide variety of education and outreach programmes based at the at Hams Hall Environmental Centre including schools from across Birmingham and the Black Country and bush craft

to variety of groups. The partnership also has its own volunteer group, Tameforce, working actively across the area.

Find out further information.

Future Parks Accelerator

The FPA programme is funded by National Heritage Lottery Fund, National Trust and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. This was formed to respond to the Parliamentary Inquiry into the Future of Public Parks 2016-17; which uncovered an out-dated approach to urban green space right across the UK.

Birmingham has come forward with a 25 year City of Nature Vision as a new city theme to run through all its policies, thinking and decision-making; reflecting the city’s declared climate emergency. The Vision will be a people's vision, challenging the old Victorian top-down system; putting people first and their engagement with nature and their natural environment, where they live. To illustrate this, over 150 Earth Stories have been submitted by (mainly) younger Birmingham citizens capturing their enthusiasm and passion for living with nature.

Birmingham City Council has looked right across its organisation and partners to come forward with a new
way of doing things. They have tested proposals within Children’s, Housing, Employment, Health and Wellbeing and Planning to help the city better see the value of nature and our green spaces. The programme has created a space for an “ecosystem” of organisations and individuals to come together and treat issues relating to nature together; across 5 themes:

A Green City
A Healthy City
A Fair City
A Valued City
An Engaged City

A further innovation has been the development of an Environmental Justice Map for Birmingham that responds to the global issue highlighted through the COVID-19 lockdowns of unequal access to public green space. This map also captures climate change pressures through heat stress and flood risk; and peoples life expectancy affected by their postcode rather than their genetic code. This map highlights the need for urgency and action and a total rethink over the role of the natural environment in cities; and emphasises how this is everybody’s agenda.

What will the 25 Year City of Nature Vision Deliver?

Restore Birmingham’s Nature Recovery Network
Support the delivery of the West Midlands National Park
Increase the city’s tree canopy to 25%
Introduce a Birmingham Fair Parks Standard
Introduce a Sustainable Finance Framework
Establish a City of Nature Community Alliance
Mainstream healthy activities outdoors
Establish Green Champions and widespread community engagement

Tree and Hedgerow planting

Trees and hedgerows play an important part in the natural environment, as long as the ‘right tree, right place’ principle is followed. They offer a range of benefits for climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as biodiversity net gain. They bring multiple co-benefits for people’s physical and mental health, especially in urban areas. There is already significant work happening in all sectors across the West Midlands with local authorities, environmental NGOs and regional businesses making commitments and planting trees.

Currently, forest cover in the WMCA is about 1.5% of the area; agriculture 20% and urban/built up areas 70%, of which 57% comprises less built up areas, technically referred to as ‘discontinuous urban fabric’. The best opportunity for tree planting is on agricultural land of poorer quality and which will

be repurposed with an associated shift in payments through the Environmental Land Management Scheme. The commitment made, through the Five Year Plan, is for 5.7 million additional trees by 2026 and 19 million by 2041 to support the regional net zero goals.

Ensuring that tree and hedgerow planting is
well conceived, carried out and maintained is an important part of ensuring that carbon sequestration and other benefits can be realised – this therefore presents an opportunity to create jobs and encourage community ownership and stewardship.

We also recognise the importance of targeting tree planting, the benefits (ecosystem services) that
can be maximised through this approach and the potential damaging impacts tree planting can have for both amenity and biodiversity if evidence is not followed. Any planting carried out, or sponsored by WMCA, will use native trees and trees which are UK and Ireland sourced and grown, wherever possible, to try to avoid introduction of new tree diseases from abroad.

In addition to planting new woodland, this plan also recognises the importance of protection for any areas of ancient woodland and any ancient, veteran or notable trees, as well as restoration of any ancient woodland that has been degraded through clearance and replanting with conifers. Protection and care

of mature trees across the region is important for retaining biodiversity value, canopy cover and landscape quality, as well as to enhance air quality.

WMCA-led flagship programme

Virtual Forest: encouraging tree-planting

The West Midlands Virtual Forest website was launched in January 2020 as a tool for recording and promoting tree planting in alignment with the WM2041 ambitions to plant 19 million trees by 2041. The project works on a philosophy of ‘crowd planting’ and we will work in collaboration with a number of partner organisations such as local tree planting groups, local authorities, national charities (such as The Woodland Trust and Trees for Cities) and other groups with large scale tree planting initiatives. The site will also seek to link up trees, land and people able to assist with planting, as well as providing support on how to plant trees and how to get further involved with the initiative.

We are keen to continue to work with partner organisations to publicise activity, and the importance of tree planting, to enable people from across the West Midlands to get involved in some way this year. We are also seeking collaboration with stakeholders who are already planning on planting trees on private land to engage with the platform to help us reach our target. As part of this initiative, we would like to:

Develop an annual plan/ targets for tree and hedgerow planting, to be delivered with partners through the Virtual Forest.
Through the expansion of the Virtual Forest platform, explore ways we can replant historical forests like Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden
Bring major regional landowners together in a ‘tree planting summit’ to promote collaboration and bring forward land for trees and other biodiversity projects.

Priority Actions

Support the Urban Forest Masterplan initiated in Birmingham and explore the potential to create a regional urban forest strategy.

Support initiatives from partners that align with our outcomes, for example the Commonwealth Games Legacy Forest by Severn Trent Water
Run a ‘right tree, right place’ campaign, for example, where trees work well as part of the climate adaptation solution to urban heat.
Work with the Woodland Trust and other tree-planting groups to explore setting up a West Midlands Tree Nursery of British native species where residents with gardens or land where they wish to plant a tree can collect or purchase discounted saplings, potentially working with garden centres in the region.
Explore incorporating tree-lined streets into the finished design for every West Midlands transport scheme which involves redesigning streets and is funded by the Combined Authority.

Case studies

The Severn Trent

Commonwealth Games Forests

The aim is to create a forest or a number of forests (using only native trees, UK sourced and grown, in keeping with the local landscape), to celebrate the year of the Games and leave a lasting legacy for both our communities and the environment in the West Midlands. There will be a 2022 acre forest as

well as 72 tiny forests, aimed at improving and enhancing the biodiversity of the region, with the potential to incorporate some existing forest/woodland areas that can be adopted into the wider landscape and brought into a coherent management strategy. They will follow watercourses and provide nature corridors across and through the area, wrapping around existing urban areas, providing a “green hug” and providing air quality improvements.

As well as the environmental benefits, the Commonwealth Games Forest will leave a lasting legacy for communities across the West Midlands by bringing a place for people to experience nature and be together without everyday life distractions.
The project will embrace ‘social prescribing’, such as a forest workshop that could support community mental health and well-being. There is also the potential to provide jobs and skills through the creation and maintenance of the forest with others, as well as through the visitor-related activity.

The 72 tiny forests will each be linked to one of the nations competing in the Commonwealth Games. Severn Trent Water are working with Earthwatch to deliver this programme, which will link to communities through schools’ programmes and other community outreach initiatives.

The Arden Free Tree Scheme (Solihull MBC)

Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council’s Arden Free Tree Scheme is being run in partnership with Birmingham Airport to plant traditional native tree species as part of their carbon management plan. The aim is to enhance and protect the Arden landscape character of the borough, creating a strong sense
of place and local distinctiveness. During the 20/21 winter this scheme supported 30 individual tree planting projects across Solihull and the wider Arden landscape with a total of 6,431 native trees and shrubs planted to create hedgerows and small woodlands. This initiative will have the added benefit of being planned to protect and enhance Solihull’s strong rural character and those features characteristic of the wider Warwickshire Arden landscape.

Wildlife corridors

Increased development of land, through housing, road building, or even agricultural activity, can be prohibitive to the mobility of wildlife. Areas become isolated, which can have detrimental effects on biodiversity. In order to prevent this, there needs to be more active creation of wildlife corridors, which can include river corridors, canals and contiguous corridors of high quality semi- natural habitat including woodlands, heathland and grasslands, but can also be constructed, for example, green bridges over new infrastructure. The National Trust describes wildlife corridors ‘as a link from one environment to another allowing wildlife to move freely and safely between them, without threat from predators or traffic’.

Climate change, and its effects, mean that wildlife corridors could become increasingly important as species migrate to compensate for the change
in temperature and natural environment. The West Midlands is significant geographically in this context as it will be an important part of the pathway for species moving north or south due to climate change. In addition, the role of the WMCA facilitates the ability to work across boundaries in the creation of new wildlife corridors.

We also need to ensure there are high quality areas of wildlife and biodiversity for the corridors to link together. Achieving nature recovery will need large areas and blocks of land in environmentally sensitive management, and considerable creation of habitat, in addition to having ecologically functioning corridors. We will work with partners to create, protect and enhance wetlands, grasslands and heathlands. Alongside tree and hedgerow planting, these environments also create important carbon sinks.

WMCA-led flagship programme

Wildlife Corridors Commission

The WMCA will establish a Wildlife Corridors Commission to understand how the region could maximise the connectivity, for both people and wildlife, through green and blue corridors – a ‘doorstep to landscape’ vision for the region. The Commission will also explore the ways that we can address barriers and blockages for wildlife due to transport and infrastructure. The overall aim of this work will be to support biodiversity net gain for the region; being able to take a pan-regional view across constituent, and into non-constituent, authorities maximises the spatial reach of impact.

The Commission will work with the evidence coming through mapping to identify priority areas of focus. This could be in terms of protecting and enhancing existing strategic wildlife corridors as well as creating new ones. The mapping will use the work undertaken by the Wildlife Trusts in anticipation of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy.

The initial six corridors of focus include those along the Rivers Cole, Rea, Stour, Sherbourne and Blythe as well as that being created by HS2. We will also support work on the region's canals as important wildlife corridors. Regional partners are already engaged in work in these corridors and the WMCA would use the work of the Commission to support this. The Commission will also work closely with existing stakeholders and partnerships operating in this space, for example the Local Nature Partnerships.

Priority actions

Explore creating a regional ‘Wildlife Ways’ programme, building on the work in Solihull. Projects would include: tree, hedgerow and wildflower planting, small habitat grants for local conservation projects and improved cycling and walking access.
Use our wildlife corridors to boost species recovery. The work towards a Local Nature Recovery Strategy will identify focus species (for example, those included in the draft Black Country LNRS Statement of Biodiversity Opportunities).
In addition to these actions, the WMCA will support partners in delivering projects that are regionally significant in enhancing wildlife corridors. These include:

Support for the regional region’s world-famous canal network, which provides important nature recovery networks, linking otherwise fragmented habitats. We will work with the Canal and River Trust on the natural environment on and around the canals; on improving towpaths, access and signage; and exploring opportunities for community engagement with nature and through their Explorers schools programme.
Work with the Environment Agency to use nature-based solutions for flood alleviation and corridors, where appropriate. This will be included as part of a Regional Adaptation Plan.
Work with farmers and landowners to enhance the rural and urban fringe agricultural land for biodiversity e.g. the Arden Farm Network across Arden Character area, led by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust.
Work with Natural England and partners on projects to deliver the Nature Recovery Network including restoration of heathlands and exploration of peatland restoration as a nature-based solution.

Wildlife ways

Wildlife Ways is a £16.8 million programme (run by Solihull MBC) and part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and WMCA. It opens up and improves existing routes, allowing wildlife to flourish and helping people to walk and cycle across the borough. In total, over 73 hectares of improved wildlife habitat has been created of benefit to the environment – through such things as local climate amelioration, surface water control and air quality improvements. These contribute to the health and well-being of the borough’s residents and visitors, education and regional economic investment and productivity.

The aims have been to improve the wildlife value and biodiversity of open spaces and highway verges and connect these areas together by improving 24 hectares of wildlife habitats along 69km of existing cycle ways and 23km of new shared surfaces. The highway verges act as green corridors for some fauna and flora to move and spread; without these, large open spaces can become isolated. These open spaces
and parks support a variety of different habitats including woodlands (of which 11 have had works carried out through Wildlife Ways), 9 grassland sites (with over 25 hectares enriched with wildflower seed) and 1 watercourse, re-profiled with gravel riffles, changes in depth and new marginal vegetation. Habitat enhancements to a stretch of the Kingshurst Brook enable an increase in natural river processes, reconnect the brook to its floodplain, diversify the morphology of the brook and reduce flood risk downstream. The work also included planting over 300 native riverside trees along the brook including black poplar, alder and willow to provide habitat diversification and shading to sections of the watercourse to mitigate future increases in water temperatures due to climate change Alongside the main Wildlife Ways programme, lots of smaller programmes have been developed as part of the Wildlife Ways / Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership’s Small Habitats Grants Programme (part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund).

Natural rivers and green land

In partnership with Birmingham City Council, Environment Agency, The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country and part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Natural Rivers and Green Corridors aims to improve Birmingham’s natural wildlife habitats and green spaces. In doing so, the project will benefit communities by making local green spaces more attractive and deliver wider environmental benefits including mitigating the impacts of climate change, air pollution and flood risk.

The programme includes restoration of the Bourn Brook through removal of weirs and deculverting of a watercourse in Senneleys Park to improve public safety, reduce flood risk and restore natural processes to allow wildlife to thrive. Invasive species alongside water courses in the upper Rea catchment are being managed to reduce flood risk and restore native biodiversity and public woodlands are being restored through thinning and planting of native ground flora.

This £1.25m investment supports the delivery of strategic green and blue infrastructure objectives set out in Birmingham’s Green Living Spaces Plan, the Environment Agency’s Humber River Basin Management Plan and Birmingham and Black Country Nature Improvement Area Ecological Strategy 2017-2022.

The project will result in 125ha of improved wildlife habitat.

Love your river stour

Love Your River Stour is a project working to improve the River Stour catchment for wildlife and people which has recently secured substantial funding (> £600k) including from the government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund. The Stour and tributary, the Smestow Brook, are key ecological corridors identified as priorities for restoration in the draft Black Country Local Nature Recovery Opportunity Map (April 2021), however, the wildlife of the river suffers from problems including poor habitat and water quality (diffuse pollution), artificially modified banks, artificially created barriers to fish movement (e.g. disused weirs), litter and invasive species.

The project takes an ecosystem services approach, investing in green and blue infrastructure to provide high quality open space for deprived urban communities, restore aquatic and terrestrial habitats for ecosystem-critical species such as salmon and otter, and addressing environmental issues including flood risk and pollution through nature-based solutions.

Love Your River Stour is a partnership of The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country, Worcestershire Wildlife Trust, Severn Rivers Trust and the Environment Agency.

Enablers of change

This plan has highlighted some ambitious nature- based solutions for the West Midlands to implement in its mission to address the ecological emergency. Their success will require us to also create the
right conditions amongst all stakeholders, from communities to NGOs businesses to play their part. We also need to understand how to take account
of nature more effectively in decision-making, understanding how we value it, and enable a consistent approach to mapping and data so that we have a clear idea on the state of the region’s nature.

The actions described in this section start to bring together opportunities and communities of action to implement the different projects and programmes that will be necessary. These range in scale and size, from citizen science programmes that can be run in an adhoc way, through to apprenticeship and trainee schemes to ensure that we are able to provide opportunities in jobs related to nature. In particular, we will work to ensure that these opportunities represent the West Midlands population and that

all opportunities focus on inclusion and improving access for everybody.

WMCA-led flagship programme

Spatially defining the region’s natural environment through maps

Understanding how and where we should protect, restore and enhance nature needs to be driven by data and an understanding of the different needs, requirements and opportunities across the region. Central to our work on the natural environment needs to be an understanding of the right kinds of interventions in the right places, including where priority action should be focused. Without this understanding, we risk implementing projects that could be detrimental to the region’s biodiversity. As
a result, we are aiming to complete full habitat mapping across the WMCA area before the end of 2022; this will build on existing work undertaken by the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country.

In addition to this more technical mapping, we also aim to create and share an interactive map to provide up-to-date information on nature across the WMCA area. This will enable additional layers
to be added to build up a comprehensive overview of the natural environment and its potential contribution to climate adaptation and resilience and air quality improvements, for example. It will also allow understanding of where areas could be targeted for investment into nature, building in the work around access to green space, and existing/ developing programmes of activity, e.g. West Midlands National Park awarded programmes or the new West Midlands trail as it progresses.

Having a clearly mapped evidence base will also support the understanding of potential impact of the different projects and programmes contained within this plan, which will be important for all regional stakeholders in terms of targeting investment and action in a coordinated way to support biodiversity net gain outcomes. The WMCA will work with existing extensive data held by Eco Record and Habitat Biodiversity Audit, to avoid duplication of data gathering and to draw in extensive local knowledge and expertise.

Priority Actions

Build natural environment into the WM Net Zero Business Pledge so businesses understand how they can support nature.
Implement effective data collection and monitoring of the region’s natural environment as a foundation for a Local Nature Recovery Strategy.
Develop a Natural Capital Investment Plan and explore new finance mechanisms, e.g. leveraging of private sector finance.
Work with the proposed Net Zero Citizen's Panel (to be set up in response to the work developed for the Five Year Plan) to support natural environment initiatives.
Run a programme of citizen science activity to support engagement in natural environment activities.
Trial a natural capital apprenticeships scheme as part of the Green Skills Strategy (to be delivered as part of the FYP), working alongside existing programmes of activity such as the successful Level 2 traineeships offered by the Wildlife Trusts.
Include natural environment projects as part of the region’s Net Zero Neighbourhood demonstrator.
Implement behaviour change initiatives to support the natural environment vision and outcomes, e.g. provide information on planting climate resilient species on on the WMCA website; support initiatives on water efficiency to conserve resources; provide guidance for planting for climate resilience, e.g. rain gardens and other SUDs initiatives; or using trees to provide shade and mitigate urban heat.

Case Study

The West Midlands National Park

The West Midlands National Park (WMNP) is
a concept, developed and led by Birmingham City University, that unites the people of the
West Midlands with their landscape, culture
and heritage. Its purpose is to create a better quality of life, opportunities and environment
for the future with thriving, healthy and resilient communities. Recognised in the UK Government’s Landscape Review, it is backed by many local stakeholders. It resonates with the aims and projects in this Plan, as well as the region’s climate emergency response, WM2041, and our ‘brownfield first’ approach to development.

Potential WMNP projects include:

Sequences of parks and squares connecting communities across and through the West Midlands to create a walkable region.
Publicly accessible clean rivers, canals, streams and working floodplains to walk and cycle along, and the start of long- distance journeys to the UK coast.
The sight and sound of nature all around, clean air, limited traffic, extensive garden and street planting, forests and woodlands to define the region.
Housing/development designed to exploit views, horizons, skylines and inherent beauty of the region.
Celebration of regional food, through allotments and urban agriculture networks, local food markets.
Networks of local supplies, shops, working places and circular economies.
Projects demonstrating carbon capture, the storage, cleansing and purification of flood and storm water.

The WMNP Lab at Birmingham City University has identified a range of initial projects and they are considering the following as priorities for a WMNP award:

A vision for the region’s waterways. Development of a vision for canal and river navigations, including the green energy and social agendas etc.
A spatial strategy for the Tame Valley and HS2. A strategy to improve Multiple Deprivation Indices, encouraging integrated working and holistic solutions, bringing different disciplines, external investment and expertise together to achieve more whilst lifting aspirations and design quality.
This work will bring together the many partners already active in this space across the region, acknowledging the significant visioning and delivery work that is already taking place.

A plan for using parks and the public realm as part of the regional recovery from Covid-19. This has four elements to it:

Creating alternative futures for Birmingham City Centre. This would be a collaborative study to inform the radical rethink of the purpose, scope and economic viability of dense city centres in a post-Covid economy, climate emergency and the urgent need to kick start a green recovery.
The Knowledge District, including The Birmingham Central Park. Developing a spatial strategy for a Birmingham Central Park, the creation of the Knowledge District and the relationship of HS2 Curzon Street with its environment, all in the context of its canal and river network.
Birmingham National Ring Parks. This project will develop the economic case and the spatial strategy for the Birmingham National Ring Park; a green, healthy alternative to the notorious ring roads that encircle our cities, starting with Birmingham.
The WM City Centre Parks. Building on the success of the Black Country Urban Park
and the Black Country Garden City, the WM Central Parks project will create a strategy for a series of central parks in each major city of the West Midlands.

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West Midlands Natural Environment Plan: 2021 - 2026