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Nature Recovery Action Plan
How We Plan to Make a Difference
Our Nature Recovery Action Plan sets out our short, medium and long term targets for nature conservation in North East Wales.
Bionet Local Nature Recovery Action Plan
The Nature Recovery Action Plan (NRAP) for the Bionet region has been developed to provide an overarching framework for anyone delivering actions to conserve, protect and enhance nature in North East Wales. The framework focuses on 4 broad habitat types; Woodland, Wetland, Grassland and Coastal and Marine. The Bionet NRAP is an interactive and dynamic online document accompanied by a series of interactive maps showing progression of conservation efforts over time. The document has been designed to be accessible to all and data from a wide range of sources will be added to gain a better understanding of what current projects are and identify opportunities for further action.
Broad Habitat Types Overview
Below we set out the four broad habitat types categorised within the Bionet NRAP and provide an overview of of the key pressures faced by each. Targets have been identified for the short term (12 months), long term (1-5 years) and long term (5 years+)
Ecosystem Resilience
It is recommended that all action to enhance, conserve and protect nature follow the DECCA framework set out by Natural Resources Wales for Ecosystem Resilience. An ecosystem is a group of inter-connected organisms (animals, plants, microbes, etc.) and the physical environment found in the particular area they occur. Examples of ecosystems include rivers, woodlands, and grasslands.
Ecosystem resilience is the ability of an ecosystem to cope with pressures and demands, either by resisting, recovering or adapting to them whilst retaining their ability to deliver ecosystem services and benefits now and into the future. The components of a resilient ecosystem are:
Diversity – at a variety of different levels and scales, including genetic diversity, species diversity, diversity within and between ecosystems and structural diversity for example.
Extent – where its area is sufficiently large to sustain populations, support ecological processes and cope with negative edge effects like predation.
Condition – where the impacts of pressures and demands are positively managed so that the physical environment can support a comprehensive range of organisms and healthy populations.
Connectivity – where organisms can move within and between different ecosystems, from foraging or migration of individuals, through dispersal of seeds and genes, to the major shifts of species’ populations to adjust to a changing climate.
Aspects of ecosystem resilience – Ecosystem resilience is regarded as a product of the above four attributes, and their emergent properties of adaptability, resistance, or recovery from pressures and demands Ecosystem resilience comes about as a result of an interplay between these aspects, allowing ecosystems to adapt, recover and resist pressures and demands more readily.
Our Nature Recovery Plans
Woodland
Wales is one of the least wooded countries in Europe with woodland providing only 14.8% of land cover compared to an EU average of 38%.
Our Plans:
- Map our woodland habitat and related projects across North East Wales
- Increase the extent of native broadleaf, mixed woodland and trees under favourable management
- Increase native broadleaf and mixed woodland, canopy cover, connecivity and resilience in North East Wales
Rivers, Ponds and Wetlands
Despite water quality in rivers generally improving over the last 25 years, only 1 in 6 freshwater habitat types are considered in favourable conservation status.
Our Plans:
- Map our wetland habitat and related projects across North East Wales
- Increase the extent of rivers, ponds and wetland habitats under favourable management
- Increase wetland extent and resilience in North East Wales
Grasslands
Grassland makes up nearly two thirds of the land cover in Wales. However most of this is agriculturally improved (reseeded, fertilised or drained), with only 9% attributed to semi-natural grassland.
Our Plans:
- Map our grassland habitat and related projects across North East Wales
- Increase the extent of grasslands under favourable management
- Increase grassland extent and resilience in North East Wales
Coastal and Marine
The Bionet region has approximately 125 kilometres of coastline stretching along the counties of Conwy, Denbighshire and Flintshire.
Our Plans:
- Map projects related to coastal and marine nature recovery across North East Wales.
- Increase the extent of coastal and marine ecosystems under favourable management.
- Increase resilience of coastal and marine ecosystems in North East Wales.
