Creating a Strategic Nature Network

The vision for a Strategic Nature Network (SNN) stems from the need for a nationally coordinated approach to ecological defragmentation one that operationalises the Lawton Principles of more, bigger, better, and more joined-up nature at scale.

By reconnecting landscapes and seascapes, the network enables the free movement of species, which is essential for adaptation in a rapidly changing climate and for sustaining the complex natural processes that underpin fully functioning ecosystems.

It is this ecological functionality that ultimately delivers the benefits upon which society depends.

The SNN will provide a framework through which the UK’s most important ecological landscapes can be recognised and managed as critical natural infrastructure. By identifying and connecting priority areas for nature protection and restoration at a national scale, the SNN enables landscapes to function as integrated systems that deliver essential ecosystem services such as flood mitigation, water security, climate resilience, and biodiversity recovery.

For businesses and infrastructure owners, a functioning Strategic Nature Network means greater asset resilience, reduced long-term risk, enhanced economic and national security, and a clear opportunity to future-proof prosperity by investing in nature as critical infrastructure.

Rebuilding a Strategic Nature Network is therefore about more than restoring nature alone. It is about securing health, prosperity, and resilience for people and places, now and for generations to come.