Agenda item

Oxfordshire Local Nature Partnership Update - Annual Report 2023/2024

For information: To receive the Oxfordshire Local Nature Partnership, (OLNP) Annual Report for 2023/2024 which presents an overview of the OLNP and highlights progress from August 2023 to August 2024.

Minutes:

The Partnership considered the Oxfordshire Local Nature Partnership, (OLNP) Annual Report 2023/2024. Matt Whitney, Oxfordshire Local Nature Partnership Manager introduced the report and gave a presentation highlighting the role of the Local Nature Partnership . The OLNP was funded by the local authority members of the Future Oxfordshire Partnership, but also received strong support from a range of statutory and voluntary stakeholders. The highlights of the previous year were set out and work in progress around nature finance, people and nature and nature recovering, (including coordination of the delivery of the upcoming Local Nature Recovery Strategy) summarised.

 

In discussion, members strongly welcomed the report and the partnership work of the OLNP. Several points were raised as summarised below:

 

·           The importance of links between the research eco-system in Oxfordshire and the OLNP around nature recovery and biodiversity were stressed. The meeting was informed there were strong links and support from both universities in the county to the OLNP and that Professor David Macdonald of the University of Oxford was a member of the OLNP Board representing the sector. In addition, the OLNP’s work had received significant support from members of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery including Professor Alison Smith and Professor Yadvinder Malhi.

·           Potential to build on the nature in sport agenda and opportunities for nature around social prescribing.  The meeting was informed that this related to the breadth of ways in which people engaged with nature. Engaging with all people at each interaction was a significant challenge and therefore activity was prioritised towards, but the importance of nature in sport was fully recognised.

·           Role of footpaths and public rights of way such as the Oxfordshire Way were mechanisms for the public to engage with nature and challenges around accessibility at certain times of year. The meeting was informed that OLNP officers did work with Oxfordshire County Council officers and other organisations around the public right of way network and footpaths also provided very important linear corridors connecting nature rich habitats.

·           There were several ways of defining nature rich habitats. In Oxfordshire it was considered that around 6.5% of land currently met the local definition which was based on criteria such as agri-environment stewardship schemes, priority habitats and areas protected for nature such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest which met a certain habitat quality threshold.

·           Use of limited resources – keys priority areas. The meeting was informed that it was expected that the Local Nature Recovery Strategy would spatially identify key places for investment. With regard to thematic policy areas, there was a need to more specifically link nature recovery into the decision making process, potentially including Local Plans and to link nature recovery ambitions to agriculture.

·           It would not be possible to meet the cost of delivering Oxfordshire’s nature recovery ambitions estimated at least £800m through the public sector, but there could be greater opportunities to leverage more private sector funding from the emergent nature markets where business was required to off-set the impact of activity through carbon credits or proactively deliver a bio-diversity net gain.

·           Money was critical. Food manufacturing and processing was the largest manufacturing sector in the UK, but studies had estimated this to be around 0.33% of GDP. Unfortunately, there were currently no funds available to farmers and most landowners to affect the outcomes all parties wanted for nature recovery through the LNRS. This was a national as well as local issue. Whilst Oxfordshire was fortunate to have access to some valuable and innovative green technology, it was important to realistic about the scale of the challenges involved in nature recovery delivery financially and economically.

 

RESOVED:

1.     That the progress described in the annual report be noted.

 

2.     That the Future Oxfordshire Partnership notes the importance of continuing to support the Oxfordshire Local Nature Partnership, aligned to several outcomes of the Oxfordshire Strategic Vision.

 

Supporting documents:

 

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