Nature recovery and climate resilience

Thriving environment

Adur & Worthing Councils are committed to stewarding, protecting and improving the environment. Restoring natural habitats will increase biodiversity and enhance our ability to withstand and adapt to a changing climate. Working with the local community and collaborating with partners, we are taking action.

2020-10-31 - EPIC Project - River

What is nature recovery and climate resilience?

The value of nature is clearer than ever. It is fundamental to our health and wellbeing, is the foundation of a productive economy and provides us with attractive neighbourhoods and access to green spaces we can enjoy.

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. Helping to restore nature can bring multiple benefits for wildlife, for people and for our economy.

Nature recovery is all about how we restore habitats, increase biodiversity, protect wildlife and combat climate change through collective action. Climate resilience is about successfully coping with and managing the impacts of climate change while preventing those impacts from growing worse.

Our strengthened biodiversity duty

The Environment Act 2021 introduced a strengthened ‘biodiversity duty’ which requires all public authorities in England to consider what they can do to conserve and enhance biodiversity. Below are the first considerations of biodiversity actions for each council:

Our actions

We work in close partnership with a wide range of local, regional and national organisations and experts to progress nature recovery across the area. Projects include:

Adur River landscape recovery project - on the Adur River Recovery website
saltmarsh and intertidal creation at Pad Farm (Shoreham/Lancing - Adur)
chalk grassland restoration at Cissbury Fields (Findon - Worthing)
meadow habitat creation at New Salts Farm (Shoreham/Lancing - Adur)
developing a habitat bank and approach to Biodiversity Net Gain
establishing a nature recovery network and inputting into the development of a Local Nature Recovery Strategy for West Sussex - on the Sussex Local Nature Partnership website

We're also taking action in local parks and green spaces to 're-nature' areas where we can. Find out more:

Renaturing in Adur and Worthing

Across Adur and Worthing there are about forty or so green space volunteer groups, working in parks, cemeteries or other wild spaces, improving the natural habitat or delivering community-led action. Find out more:

Adur & Worthing Green Spaces Partnership - on the Green Tides website

West Sussex County Council (WSCC) is responsible for the community road verges (CRVs) scheme which aims to boost biodiversity. See:

Community road verges (CRVs) - on the WSCC website

Partnerships

The councils play an active role in area-wide nature partnerships. Find out more on the:

Sussex Bay

Adur & Worthing Councils are the hosts and incubators for the award-winning Sussex Bay initiative which extends across the whole Sussex coastline. Sussex Bay is a generational vision for integrated seascape restoration across Sussex intertidal rivers, coast and sea - 'the blue mirror to the South Downs'. With huge potential for seascape scale nature recovery across a large area, we see a future where nature, people and the local economy are thriving together.