Local Nature Partnership

rdf:langString Local Nature Partnership

rdf:langString Local Nature Partnerships (LNPs) are partnerships of a broad range of influential organisations, businesses and people, and from a range of sectors, charged by government with the task of bringing about improvements in their local natural environment in England. To achieve this they are expected to ensure that consideration for the environment is put right at the heart of local decision-making. Local Nature Partnerships originated in a vision set out in the UK government's 2011 ‘Natural Environment White Paper’, which identified the need to take greater account of the value of the environment when strategic decisions are made that affect people and the local economy. The overall purpose of an LNP is to: * Drive positive change in the local natural environment, taking a strategic view of the challenges and opportunities involved and identifying ways to manage it as a system for the benefit of nature, people and the economy. * Contribute to achieving the Government's national environmental objectives locally, including the identification of local ecological networks, alongside addressing local priorities. * Become local champions influencing decision-making relating to the natural environment and its value to social and economic outcomes, in particular, through working closely with local authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and Health and Wellbeing Boards. As of August 2014 there were 48 LNPs in England which had received formal approval from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.