29th September 2017

The Agriculture Working Group of Wildlife and Countryside Link, a coalition of 46 voluntary organisations in the conservation sector, has set out its ideas for a sustainable farming and land management policy in England. These proposals are driven by the current discussions around the future of support for the farming sector following Britain's departure from the EU. They make a case that policy should focus on environmental land management and securing public goods and benefits for all of society. There are three high level objectives identified:

17th August 2017

Wildlife Trusts Wales has published an outline of how green infrastructure can help fulfill the goals set in the Wellbeing and Future Generations Act in Wales. It puts forward a vision for green infrastructure in the country and lists numerous pieces of evidence for the multiple benefits of GI, from tackling health inequalities to increasing prosperity and improving community cohesion.

Read the full report on the Wildlife Trusts Wales website 

8th July 2017

Public Health England has published an evidence resource for planning and designing healthier places. It includes a short section on 'Access to and engagement with the natural environment', setting out evidence in ways that will be helpful to those working in the health sector.

Access the resource at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/fil...

On 21st June 2017, Open Government Network Northern Ireland organised a webinar entitled 'The Sustainable Development Goals in the UK: priorities, processes, participation'. It provides a helpful introduction to what the Goals mean for the UK. The ecosystem approach principles - the focus for the Ecosystems Knowledge Network - can help to put the Goals into practice.

A link to the recording is available at https://youtu.be/sgrukwJbu6E

Cornwall Council has today (8th June 2017) launched a consultation on a Nature-on-Referral Service. This involves a hub that will coordinate and support work in this rapidly growing area; using our superb natural environment to make real changes in peoples’ health and wellbeing.  

The full consultation document and a summary on the webpage  is available at http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/doseofnature

Best practice in commissioning green prescriptions - 7th June 2017, 10am - 4.30pm. Birmingham city centre (Austin Court B1 2NP)

This is a unique one-day training course to help professionals working in the health system to scope, design and implement a green prescription scheme in their locality.

The organisers are now able to make 10 places available at a much reduced rate of £60 (full course price £195). Bookings must be made by 5pm on 1st June. First come first served.

The Natural Capital Committee for England has published a draft (version 1) workbook for natural capital assessment, along with a paper that sets out principles for selecting approaches to valuation of changes in the state of natural capital.

"This practical guide is aimed at anyone who wants to use natural capital approaches in making decisions about the natural environment. It is intended to support decision makers, including planners, communities and landowners, but has particular relevance for place based decisions."

Following successful events in Bristol, Liverpool and Perth, our next seminar to introduce natural capital accounting at the local and landscape scale will take place in Peterborough on 17th May. 4 places left!

http://ecosystemsknowledge.net/events/local-accounting-2017

A summary of the results of a 2016 survey of perceptions about PES and its uptake in the UK is now available. See the link on our payments for ecosystem services landing page.

A Natural England report - Good practice in social prescribing for mental health: The role of nature-based interventions has just been published. 

Social prescribing is the mechanism which provides GPs with non-medical referral options, such as nature-based interventions alongside existing treatments to improve health and wellbeing - potentially at much less cost to the NHS. The prescription of nature-based interventions is often called a ‘green prescription’.

Defra has published an evaluation of the process of supporting 16 pilot projects to investigate the feasibility of setting up payments for ecosystem services schemes. The report provides an overview of the pilots, along with an assessment of the impact and costs and benefits. Find a link to the report on our payments for ecosystem services landing page.