By adopting strategic planning approach to the delivery of these environmental outcomes, we can be more cost effective and provide greater opportunities to deliver these environmental benefits, improving ecosystem services that will benefit both wildlife and society. Only then we can do it at the scale required to deliver the Government’s ambition to make the Arc the ‘standard bearer for green growth in the UK that it imagines.
Of course, this process requires wide public engagement and strong governance to deliver but there is also an opportunity here, that technology affords us, that hasn't been available in the past, to undertake a more strategic analysis and planning of optimal land uses across the Arc too.
Striving to achieve a 20% net gain for biodiversity across the Arc, for instance, will require both on and off-site habitat creation and enhancement. A proposed Arc Spatial Framework provides an opportunity to promote the protection and enhancement of nature networks, strengthen wildlife corridors and encourage wildlife movement, creating more resilience to climate change.
This type of ambitious spatial planning is not about the development process its about land use policy. There are millions of acres of land that exist across the Arc and we need an approach that sets out to put each one of them to the best possible use.
