Vision, aims and targets
Given the continued pressures facing nature, we need to plan proactively to ensure that the city-region has resilient spaces for wildlife and people to thrive. This will help nature to bounce back and at the same time provide spaces that improve our health and wellbeing, reduce flood risk, improve water quality and better adapt the city-region to climate change.
The fragmented and isolated nature of our best remaining sites, coupled with them not being in as good a condition as they could be, means that they do not currently provide the foundation from which nature can recover. To allow nature to recover our remaining spaces for nature need to not only be bigger and better, but crucially more joined up, allowing wildlife to move between them.
To halt – and in time reverse – local biodiversity loss and to help nature recover, we need everyone to work together and play their part.
Our vision
Our vision for nature recovery in Greater Manchester is for everyone to work together to deliver a resilient network for nature across the city-region, connecting and enhancing wild spaces so that people and nature can thrive.
Our aims
Our vision can only be achieved by working together across the city-region, with communities, developers, local authorities, businesses, charities and institutions all playing a part.
To deliver on this vision we need Greater Manchester to be a place where we are all:
- Enhance and protect: Safeguarding, enhancing and restoring our nature rich sites.
- Create and connect: Creating more wildlife-rich resilient spaces, where they will expand and connect spaces for wildlife and people.
- Build resilience: Managing and reducing pressure on our environment and waterways, maximising nature’s role in adapting the city-region climate change.
- Act together: Working together to take action for nature and embed space for nature and people to thrive across all our communities.
- Improve access: Improving local access to nature and ensure there are more opportunities to enjoy nature, in those areas which need it the most.
- Engage and value: Improving engagement with nature and better understanding of its value in our lives.
Our targets
To track action on progress towards this vision and aims we need to set clear focused targets and monitor everyone’s progress against these. Working with partners we have selected some headline targets for our key aims. Action beyond these targets is crucial, but they will be used focus action and report on progress.
Our ambitions, by 2035, are to:
- Protect: Increase the amount of Greater Manchester protected for nature from 11% to 15% of the city-region.
- Enhance: Bring 50% of our Local Wildlife Sites into active management for nature conservation. Create
Work towards the restoration and creation of 1,800ha of wildlife-rich land and to expand tree canopy cover from 16.5% to 18.5%. - Connect: Target the delivery of new wildlife-rich land and tree planting within the GM Nature Network.
- Improve access: Increase the number of GM residents living within 15mins of a decent green space.
These are the headline targets for the strategy – a list of all the targets and monitoring framework will be published in 2025.