The Trust has been ploughing its way through Local Biodiversity Action Plans (LBAPs) available throughout England and Wales (Northern Ireland doesn't yet have an LBAP system), extracting information on actions to which NT have been assigned ‘Lead’ or ‘Partner’.

Over 100 LBAPs have been examined, resulting in 1,200 LBAP actions assigned to NT in England and a further 367 in Wales. Commonly occurring habitat action plans with NT action include the BAP Priority habitats Lowland Wood-pasture and Parkland, Lowland Heathland, Upland Heathland, Lowland Calcareous Grassland, Lowland Meadows and many of the coastal habitats, particularly Maritime Cliff and Slope.

Action types are also variable, but by far the most common are actions of the type ‘Site/Habitat Safeguard and Management’, with ‘Communications and Publicity’, ‘Advisory’ and ‘Research and Monitoring’ occurring frequently.

Very few LBAPs have costed action plans, so the resource implications are difficult to gauge, but ‘extensive’ springs to mind.  Now that this baseline information is collated in one place, the Trust has the opportunity to evaluate how best it can deliver these 1,567 actions, whether it really should be delivering some of them and where it can take additional action.