Mayor publishes landmark nature recovery plan

Green spaces, waterways and wildlife across the West Midlands will get their biggest helping hand to survive and thrive under plans set out today by Mayor Richard Parker.

The West Midlands Local Nature Recovery Strategy outlines 62 actions that will protect and enhance nature while also unlocking benefits to the health, wellbeing, and prosperity of communities and businesses.

They include restoring wildlife habitats, improving the region’s rivers and iconic canals, planting more trees, and opening more urban green spaces for people to enjoy.

Together these measures will boost biodiversity, improve quality of life for the region’s three million residents, help the region adapt to climate change, and create green jobs.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has developed the strategy in partnership with local councils and environmental organisations, community groups, businesses, schools and colleges, universities, landowners, farmers and developers.

Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “Our region has one of the country’s most distinctive landscapes, with a unique mosaic of industrial heritage, iconic canals, vibrant urban centres, parks, rivers, nature reserves and millions of trees.

“Spaces such as Sutton Park, Saltwells Nature Reserve and Sandwell Valley are the heart and the lungs of our towns and cities: clean, green spaces where people can connect with nature, learn and play, and do a whole range of activities that benefit health and wellbeing.

“We must treasure all of our natural assets because they have the power to drive a more prosperous, healthier, and more attractive West Midlands. This strategy will help ensure our natural spaces survive and thrive for generations to come.”

Mayor Richard Parker at the River Rea restoration project, with Jake Williams, Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust, Adam Noon, Environment Agency, Dan Brown, Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust, and Jackie Homan and Mike Webb, West Midlands Combined Authority.

The Mayor launched the strategy during a visit to a restoration project on a section of the River Rea on the edge of Birmingham city centre.

Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust is working with the Environment Agency to re-naturalise the river. This will help prevent flooding and boost wildlife, with the longer-term aim of bringing the native brown trout fish back to the river.

The strategy highlights several other significant nature and climate projects that could be accelerated if partners work together. These include:

• Birmingham City of Nature – a long-term plan to establish community gardens across the city and more accessible open spaces, boosting green jobs and skills
• Coventry Green for All – to tackle green deprivation, strengthen the city’s climate resilience and create training opportunities and apprenticeships
• Walsall Nature and Health Strategy – to map green space inequalities and support communities, schools and businesses to join the ‘Adopt a Space’ scheme
• In Dudley, the ongoing restoration of former Wren’s Nest quarry, Grade I-listed historic parkland The Leasowes, and Saltwells, an old coalmine now one of the UK's largest urban nature reserves
• Improvements along the River Cole through Solihull in the Tame Valley Wetlands Nature Improvement Area, and in Birmingham and Black Country Nature Improvement Area.

The West Midlands Nature Investment Hub will go live next year to support the Mayor’s plan to pour up to £100 million of private and public sector funding into hundreds of environmental projects across the region.

The WMCA has already provided £1.6 million to support more than 50 community led environment projects.

Collectively, these have improved access to green space for more than 500,000 residents, restored 245,000 square metres of wildlife habitats (an area the size of 35 football pitches), and created 260 jobs and opportunities for local people to learn green skills.

The Local Nature Recovery Strategy is backed by local councils and some of the biggest regional and national wildlife and environmental organisations.

Delia Garrett, chief executive of Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust, said: “We really value our close working relationship with partners such as the West Midlands Combined Authority and Environment Agency.

“As a Wildlife Trust working in an urban context, where there is intense pressure on land use, these partnerships help us seize opportunities to restore nature within our region, making our cities more liveable, green, and welcoming.”

Gina Rowe, landscape recovery development manager for Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, said: “Warwickshire Wildlife Trust looks forward to continued partnership working with the combined authority as the Local Nature Recovery Strategy moves into delivery, with particular interest in the cross-boundary links between Warwickshire, Solihull and Coventry across the Local Nature Partnership area.”

Adam Noon, West Midlands catchment co-ordinator for the Environment Agency, said: “It has been a privilege to work with a wide range of enthusiastic partners to help develop the West Midlands Combined Authority Local Nature Recovery Strategy over the last couple of years.

“The strategy closely aligns with the Environment Agency’s aspirations to enhance the water environment across the combined authority area. It will help to drive much needed investment and focus into habitat restoration and species recovery including into priority freshwater species like brown trout, white-clawed crayfish, and water vole.”

The value of protecting and restoring the region’s nature sites to the economy and the region’s three million residents is backed up by research showing a 40% increase in commercial trading where there has been investment in green space and 50% boost to trade in business districts with trees and restaurants in attractive natural settings.

A survey carried out by the WMCA revealed that two thirds of residents believe time in nature is important, but only a third rated access to their local green spaces as ‘good’ or ‘very good’. More than half of respondents said they were concerned about the impact of climate change.

The West Midlands Local Nature Recovery Strategy is available to read at www.wmca.org.uk/what-we-do/environment-energy/west-midlands-local-nature-recovery-strategy/