Nature Recovery

Helping nature thrive across Hampshire

Nature recovery is at the heart of Hampshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS). The Strategy sets out a shared ambition to help nature recover across Hampshire by creating a bigger, better and more connected network of places for wildlife. That means going beyond protecting the important habitats we already have.

Across Hampshire, a rich mix of landscapes provides a home for a wide variety of wildlife. From ancient woodlands, wildflower-rich grasslands and internationally important chalk streams to heathlands, wetlands and our coast, these places make Hampshire special. However, many of these habitats have been lost, damaged or become increasingly isolated over time. Nature recovery is about reversing that decline – restoring and creating habitats, improving their condition and reconnecting them so that wildlife can move, adapt and thrive.

The LNRS helps us understand where action could make a particularly important contribution, but nature recovery can happen anywhere in Hampshire. From large landscape-scale projects to changes in community spaces, parks, farms, road verges and gardens, actions across the county can all play a part.

Nature needs more space, in better condition and better connected.

What is nature recovery?

Nature recovery is about helping our natural environment become healthier, richer and more resilient.

It means protecting the best habitats we already have, improving those that are in poor condition, creating new habitat and, importantly, connecting these places together so that wildlife can move through the landscape.

This could mean restoring a chalk stream or wetland, bringing a woodland back into active management, recreating species-rich grassland, planting and restoring hedgerows, creating ponds or making more room for nature in our towns, villages and communities.

Individually these actions can make a difference. When they are planned and connected across a wider area, they can become part of something much bigger – a functioning network for nature across Hampshire.

Why does nature need to recover?

Hampshire still supports an incredible wealth of wildlife, but the abundance and diversity of nature has declined significantly.

Many habitats now survive as smaller, isolated fragments. This makes it harder for species to move between them, find food and shelter, reproduce successfully and respond to changes in their environment.

Climate change makes connectivity even more important. As conditions change, wildlife needs opportunities to move through the landscape and find places where it can survive and thrive.

Nature recovery is therefore about more than preventing further loss. It is about actively rebuilding the habitats and connections that nature needs for the future. This is the aim of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy.

Why is nature recovery important for us?

We depend on a healthy natural environment too.

Nature provides the clean air we breathe and the water we drink. Healthy soils support food production. Woodlands, wetlands and grasslands can store carbon, help manage water and reduce the effects of flooding and extreme temperatures.

Access to nature also contributes to our health and wellbeing and makes Hampshire a better place to live, work and visit.

By helping nature recover, we can create landscapes that are more resilient for wildlife, people and communities in a changing climate.

Nature recovery in Hampshire

Nature recovery cannot be delivered by one organisation alone.

Across Hampshire, councils, farmers and landowners, conservation organisations, communities, businesses and many others are already protecting habitats, restoring landscapes and creating new spaces for nature.

Hampshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy gives us a shared framework to help build on this work. It identifies priorities for nature recovery and opportunities to create, restore and connect habitats where action could make a particularly important contribution.

But nature recovery is not restricted to the areas identified on the Strategy’s maps. Actions for nature are valuable throughout Hampshire, from major landscape-scale projects to improvements to parks, road verges, school grounds, community spaces and gardens.

By connecting action as well as habitats, we can achieve much more together.

See nature recovery in action

What are we doing?

Hampshire County Council manages land, services and infrastructure across the county, giving us many opportunities to support nature recovery.

Discover the work taking place across the Council – from our country parks, nature reserves and countryside sites to highways, the rural estate and projects helping restore and connect habitats across Hampshire.

The County Council's work includes: