The TVNP are working with its partner organisations to create a “ Tees Valley Natural Networks and Opportunities Map” is planned order to inform the strategic economic development of the Tees Valley and enhance the quality of place for existing and future communities and potential investment.
This work, which is funded by Defra and Natural England, will bring together the existing ecological (and geological) data sets for the Tees Valley in a Geographical Information system (GIS) format to produce short explanatory documents that will;
- Describe the natural and local environment of the Tees Valley that we are seeking to protect, promote and enhance.
- Identify and map the components of the local ecological network (designated sites), wildlife corridors and stepping stones that connect them so that it is possible to identify landscape areas for habitat restoration or creation.
- Identify the key components of each area that we need to enhance to create robust functioning ecosystems. Using the existing TVBAP Habitat and Species Action Plans and Local Sites management targets where possible to provide targets for Local Plans that will promote the preservation, restoration and re-creation of priority habitats, ecological networks and protection and recovery of priority species populations
- Review of landscape-scale ecological delivery opportunities in the Tees Valley, bringing together the objectives of existing landscape partnerships and analysis of local data sets to identify key areas for landscape scale activity.
This resulting documents and GIS data resource will provide a robust evidence base for the TVNP’s partnership organisations in the strategic development of the Tees Valley. It will enable the growth and regeneration sectors , including the Local Enterprise Partnership ( Tees Valley Unlimited), to gain a greater spatial understanding of the natural assets of the Tees Valley and will facilitate a Landscape scale approach to biodiversity. It will enable the TVNP to respond to role of LNPs as set out by the Natural Environment White paper (2011) in taking a strategic approach to the protection, enhancements and creation of the natural environment and provide local planning authorities evidence and information on ecological networks in strategic planning as part of the through the National Planning Policy Framework.
The work will be carried out using ecological expertise of TVNP partners with land use planning and strategic planning expertise provided by the Tees Valley Local Enterprise Partnership and local authority planners.
Accompanying the mapping will be briefing papers and workshops that will be delivered to a wide range of Tees Valley stakeholders from the economic, planning and neighbourhood sectors in Spring 2013.