This Gloucestershire Local Nature Partnership (LNP) website is being managed for the benefit of its members and anyone with an interest in protecting and enhancing the natural environment. In July 2012 Defra gave the Gloucestershire LNP official recognition as one of many covering England.

LNP's are expected to:

• Take a strategic view of the challenges and opportunities involved in driving forward positive change for the natural environment and identifying ways to manage it as a system for the benefit of nature, people and the economy.
   
• Contribute to achieving the Government’s national environmental objectives locally, including the identification of local ecological networks, alongside addressing local priorities.
   
• Become local champions influencing decision-making relating to the natural environment and its value to social and economic outcomes, in particular, through working closely with local authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and Health and Wellbeing Boards.

The LNP's Mission Statement is "To improve the prospects for Gloucestershire's natural environment while demonstrating its vital role in our health & well-being, its significant contribution to a thriving economy and to a better quality of life for all".

The LNP has a strategic Board consisting of partners covering various sectors and concerns with an interest or influence focused on the natural environment at a county level. In addition to the Board it has been agreed that ‘on the ground local delivery’ is to be via a suite of emerging geographic delivery partnerships, who would strive to deliver a strategic ecological network for the county.

See The Plan and Delivery pages for further information.

The wider LNP incorporates a number of groups and committees which were originally established under the Gloucestershire Biodiversity Partnership.  These are the Local Authority, Planning and Biodiversity Group; the Wildlife Sites Partnership; and the Management Committee for the Gloucestershire Centre for Environmental Records (GCER). New and emerging landscape-scale delivery groups have been encouraged to link in with the LNP's aspirations, e.g. local Nature Improvement Area (NIA) and Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) partnerships.