Constraints and opportunities for nature recovery in the devolution landscape: the role of parish-level governance
Successful nature recovery relies on multi-tiered governance that, in collaboration with civil society networks, can galvanise collective action from hyper-local to regional scales. The English devolution agenda promises not only to shake up local government but also to transform how it connects with and transfers power to communities. There are opportunities for nature recovery within this new governance landscape, and we have found that parish councils are playing an increasingly important role. We highlight an exemplar case from our research here. However, we recognise that capacity, willingness and expertise are uneven across parish councils and may remain so as devolution progresses.
Our project, Nature Recovery and Regional Development at the University of Exeter, examines how nature recovery intersects with local communities and economies in rural peripheral regions of England. It has been exciting to consider nature recovery during a period of significant development and change in environmental policy. The past few years have seen the rollout and evolution of Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMs) and mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), as well as the development and deployment of Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS), most of which have now been published. The Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, has raised further questions about how LNRSs will be delivered, as well as new opportunities for nature recovery.
Social and natural scientists have long argued that nature supports society. Alongside being a source of wellbeing in its own right (e.g. birdwatching), nature provides life-supporting resources such as food, water, fibre and fuel; helps to regulate climate, water and disease; supports nutrient cycling and soil formation; and holds deep cultural significance for people, from our coastal communities to our capital cities. As the Dasgupta Review demonstrated, at a global and national scale, economies are inextricably dependent on a functioning biosphere. Nature also underpins local communities and economies, and local governance is key to creating opportunities at these intersections.
As our research shows, the parish council level of local governance has immense potential for delivering hyper-local nature recovery, which not only supports region-wide LNRS delivery but also provides multiple co-benefits at the local community level. Our case study of Shropshire, published in this British Academy discussion paper, shows how the parish council network in Shropshire is mobilising around nature recovery and supporting LNRS delivery from the bottom up. Crucially, it has involved building strong networks with civil society groups, including a Community Land Trust that is purchasing land for the primary purpose of nature recovery. In addition, parish councils are being encouraged to develop their own hyper-local nature recovery strategies that are aligned with and support the wider regional LNRS.
In the context of devolution, further challenges and opportunities emerge for the kind of multi-tiered, multidirectional and multi-actor activity for nature recovery occurring in Shropshire. Firstly, as proposed in the Devolution White Paper (2025), LNRSs will come under the remit of new higher-level Strategic Authorities (SAs). Shifting LNRS responsibility to the new SAs risks detachment from the hyper-local level, where there is significant potential for nature recovery. Further, with several current upper-tier authorities set to merge under new combined mayoralties – for example, Norfolk and Suffolk, and East and West Sussex – it remains unclear whether and how LNRSs might be merged while retaining their place sensitivity and local relevance. There is a danger that much valuable LNRS work will be lost in this process. Secondly, under devolution, the Government has committed to improving relations between town and parish councils and higher tiers of local government, but it is currently unclear whether the new mayoralties will recognise parish councils’ potential for supporting local nature recovery.
In developing hyper-local nature recovery strategies, parish councils can help prevent LNRSs from becoming too detached from the community level. In doing so, they are better positioned to advocate for place-sensitive interventions – for example, negotiating the timing of verge cutting with upper-tier authorities to better support biodiversity and species abundance. We anticipate that hyper-local plans would also strengthen parish councils’ case for nature within the planning system. As statutory consultees, parish councils can shape both the local plan-making process and day-to-day decisions on planning applications. Where a parish council has developed its own hyper-local nature recovery strategy, this can guide its input, ensuring that place-sensitive nature recovery has a voice.
As the Shropshire case shows, community land ownership is a promising frontier for nature recovery. The successes of the Middle Marches Community Land Trust and Pontesbury Parish Council demonstrate the potential for community-owned land assets not only to support nature recovery directly but also to place nature at the heart of communities, where the co-benefits can be most profound. However, safeguards such as restrictive covenants are needed to protect spaces for nature in the long term, as even publicly owned land assets may be at risk of future development.
There are over 300 Community Land Trusts (CLTs) in England, and while the overwhelming majority are engaged primarily in housing delivery, a small number, including the MMCLT, have been established solely for nature recovery. Ultimately, CLTs can deliver both built infrastructure and nature recovery, and we are encouraged by their potential to integrate the two, generating multiple co-benefits for local communities. Although the Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill allows for community asset transfers via a Community Right to Buy, in which CLTs may be instrumental, the criteria remain limited to social and economic benefits. They entirely overlook both the intrinsic value of nature and the broader socioeconomic benefits it provides. It also overlooks the fact that co-benefits can be generated on previously nature-depleted sites – that natural, social and economic value can be created. Communities need the opportunity to create that value. This ‘people-and-nature’ approach, in our opinion, is at the very heart of what nature recovery means.
Despite the absence of provision in the Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill for nature asset transfers, there remains an encouraging potential for upper-tier authorities to transfer functions and assets to parish councils and communities to support nature recovery, where there is capacity, willingness and access to ecological expertise. These can include parks, gardens, verges, and other landholdings such as county farms in areas that retain them, and the management of such spaces. Shropshire is championing this model, connecting people with nature while generating the socioeconomic co-benefits that are fundamental to sustainable regional development.
Finally, with more than half of all required LNRSs now published by responsible authorities across the country, there is much to learn about how upper-tier authorities can engage with the first tier of government and civil society on nature recovery. We know that the LNRS officer in Shropshire has been closely connected to developments at the hyper-local level, including a series of conferences organised by the parish network. We also note the emergence of exemplar LNRSs, including those from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight, where parish council and civil society networks were considered critical in their development and will be instrumental in their delivery.
To conclude, while the anticipated Devolution and Community Empowerment Act may not realise the full potential to support nature recovery and embed it in communities, opportunities remain within the wider devolution landscape. Much of this potential lies at the parish council level, which can foster collaboration and a sense of stewardship and responsibility for nature within communities. However, alongside this potential, there is a need to strengthen quality control at this tier of governance; for example, there is currently no ombudsman for parish councils, and issues of competence and capacity may persist as devolution progresses. Global biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse are incredibly daunting challenges, but at the local level, there are tangible ways to address them.
About the authors
Georgina Treloar worked for over 15 years’ as a communications professional and completed her PhD in Environmental Social Science at the University of Kent in 2024 on framing in the climate/environmental movement. She also holds a postgraduate certificate in Methods of Social Research including qualitative and quantitative methods (distinction), an MA in Writing and Literature and an undergraduate degree in the Creative Industries.
Jack Reed is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the ESRC-funded Nature Recovery and Regional Development (NaRReD) project. He is affiliated with the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) in Penryn and also works in the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute (LEEP) in Exeter. Jack works at the forefront of interdisciplinary research exploring how nature recovery intersects with rural economies, technologies and public policy.
Joanie Willett is Associate Professor in Politics and co-director of the Institute of Cornish Studies. Her research focusses on the co-evolutionary relationship between people, communities, and geologies, geographies, and ecologies.
Jane Wills is an Honorary Professor of Geography at the Centre for Geography and Environmental Science (CGES) in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science (DEES) at the University of Exeter. She is affiliated to the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) on campus and used to be its Director between 2020 and 2023.
Juliet Osborne is an Honorary Professor afflliated to the University of Exeter. She is an applied ecologist, studying how insects and plants interact within the environment, focussing on pollination ecology and services.
Ian Bateman is Professor of Environmental Economics and Co-Director of the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute (LEEP) at the University of Exeter Business School. His main research interests revolve around the issue of ensuring sustainable wellbeing through the integration of natural, physical, economic and social science knowledge into policy and decision making.
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