Landuse Planning
UK Government has opened a Land Use Framework consultation, and Rebuilding Nature is calling for a bold, strategic, and nature-led approach that ensures land is used efficiently, sustainably, and equitably to meet the UK's climate, biodiversity, and food security goals.
The Land Use Framework is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a cohesive, ambitious, and investment-ready approach to land use in the UK.
Rebuilding Nature wants to see a visionary, nature-led strategy that integrates conservation, climate action, and sustainable agriculture ensuring that land is managed to deliver for people, wildlife, and the economy.
Here's what Rebuilding Nature want to see:
A Strategic, Joined-Up National Approach
- The framework must go beyond fragmented, localised decision-making and provide a clear national strategy that aligns biodiversity, carbon, and food production goals.
- It should integrate with the Strategic Nature Network (SNN), ensuring that land use decisions prioritise nature recovery as critical infrastructure.
Prioritise Restoring Natural Processes
- Policy must prioritise ecosystem functionality, ensuring that land use decisions restore, connect, and sustain natural processes rather than fragment them.
- Defragmentation of landscapes is essential not just for the free movement of species to re-animate natural processes and the integrity of ecosystems but also for full resilience against changing climate.
- We must rebuild landscapes that work for both nature and people, recognising that long-term prosperity depends on functioning ecosystems that provide clean air, water, carbon sequestration, and pollination services for a secure food supply and thriving economy.
Clear Pathways to Unlock Private Investment
- Unlocking the full potential of nature-based solutions at a national scale will provide the scale of opportunity to fund high-integrity investment mechanisms that fairly compensate land managers for the vital services they provide. The UK’s ability to meet its climate and biodiversity commitments hinges on the integration of nature recovery with sustainable agriculture, green finance, and infrastructure planning.
- The framework must provide endorsement for private finance to support nature-based solutions, including biodiversity credits, carbon markets, and regenerative agriculture with explicit support for stacking and blended finance approaches for sustainable and long lasting outcomes.
- It should create bankable nature projects that attract investment at scale, not just small, disconnected initiatives.
Better Integration of Farming & Nature
- It must prioritise regenerative agriculture as a core component of sustainable land use, ensuring that food production and nature recovery work together, not against each other.
- This includes financial incentives for farmers to restore ecosystems while maintaining productivity.
A Mandate for Nature-Based Solutions in Infrastructure & Planning
- Nature-based solutions (e.g., floodplain restoration, peatland recovery, and the prioritisation of natural process driven management, must be embedded in planning regulations and treated as critical infrastructure.
- The framework should provide a national approach to balancing development, nature, and agriculture, ensuring land use decisions enhance ecosystem resilience.