Staffordshire Moorlands District Council

Above: The launch of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council's Plan for Nature, with representatives from the council, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, and the local conservation volunteering group, Friends of Cecilly Brook.

Staffordshire Wildlife Trust has worked closely with Staffordshire Moorlands District Council on the development of a Nature Recovery Declaration and a Plan for Nature, an evidence-based strategy for nature recovery that was the first of its kind in the county. Within this strategy the council has committed to a number of targets, including ensuring that by 2030, 30% of all land in the Staffordshire Moorlands will be protected and looked after so that wildlife can thrive there.

In order to meet this ambition, the authority has appointed a biodiversity officer and has invested in ecological expertise from the Trust to input into planning applications. The actions it is taking also include reviewing the management practices of its green spaces to boost biodiversity, and investigating a range of avenues to enable them to meet the 30 x 30 target, including to identify suitable council-owned sites for receiving Biodiversity Net Gain. The council is also a partner in the Trust's Nature in your Neighbourhood project, which is working with communities to improve local green spaces for wildlife.