Calls for collaboration to drive New Forest recovery
More than half the Forest is an area for conservation or special protection
The New Forest National Park Authority (NFNPA) and its partners are calling on us to work together to aid the recovery of nature in the area.
56% of the Forest is a Special Area of Conservation, Special Protection Area or Ramsar Site, with a further 5% classified as non-statutory sites that are important for nature conservation.
The Re:New Nature Challenge is part of the partnership plan focussing on the recovery of nature in the National Park in the face of the climate emergency.
The National Park’s CEO Alison Barnes said a huge amount of work is already being done, including the improvement of wetlands and freshwater habitats:
"The idea of the Re:New Nature Challenge is to ask people to redouble their efforts to work together to achieve this in a more collaborative and co-ordinated way, aligning resources, harnessing each other’s work and, crucially, to attract funding into both the public and private sector to secure the New Forest for future generations."
The NFNPA have been working with key conservation organisations to identify the required actions to encourage the recovery of nature.
They’ve created the Re:New Nature Challenge document, which sets out a spatial approach with the Forest viewed as five connected areas, each with individual landscape characters.
A special event at the NFNPA stand at the New Forest show on Tuesday (25th July), the organisations called for a wider working partnership, inviting landowners, land managers, communities and investors to develop ideas and projects and secure resources together.
Part of that group is Mike Clarke, the Vice President of the RSPB. He said we must not take the New Forest for granted:
"The natural landscape has survived since the last Ice Age, thanks to the traditional commoning system and the enduring partnership between humans and animals. It can still survive but we have to work together to make an impact collectively."