How is Cornwall Council delivering Nature Recovery

Cornwall Council is fully committed to delivering a healthier environment, vibrant communities and a resilient economy for the people and nature of Cornwall.

We have published and adopted a Grow Nature Action Plan which sets out how we will support delivery of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Nature Recovery Strategy and Marine Nature Recovery Framework.

Grow Nature sets out how we intend to enable nature to recover, restore our natural environment and ensure a sustainable and nature-rich future for Cornwall with happier and healthier communities.

It also forms part of our response the Enhanced Biodiversity Duty as set out in the Environment Act 2021.

Grow Nature Action Plan

This plan sets out how Cornwall Council are going to deliver against the new Enhanced Biodiversity Duty between 2026 and 2030, and how we can contribute to local and national targets in the Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan.

Importantly, it embeds nature recovery across the authority’s services, functions and processes, demonstrating how we are striving to lead by example in our role as Responsible Authority for developing, coordinating and reporting on the delivery of the groundbreaking statutory Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Nature Recovery Strategy (NRS). The scope of the actions set out in this plan also extend into our seas, demonstrating how we are responding to our voluntary Marine Nature Recovery Framework (MNRF), which is a first of its kind for a local authority in England.

The plan has been developed in collaboration with Services across Cornwall Council through internal engagement and consultation activities through 2025/26, resulting in a suite of actions for nature recovery that are grouped under four over-arching Missions:

Mission 1 – Land, rivers and seas: Working towards at least 30% of land, rivers and seas well managed for nature by 2030

Mission 2 – Nature-positive decision making: Embedding nature into local decision making and organisations

Mission 3 – Resilient communities: Making our economy and communities more resilient through nature-based solutions

Mission 4 – Local action: Empowering One and All to take action for nature

Enhanced Biodiversity Duty

All local authorities must publish a report on how they have complied with the biodiversity duty set out in the Environment Act 2021.

The biodiversity duty means that we must:

Consider what we can do to conserve and enhance biodiversity
Agree policies and specific objectives based on our consideration
Act to deliver our policies and achieve our objectives

This report documents the policies and actions that Cornwall Council has carried out since the publication of the Environment Act in November 2021 to 31 December 2025.

Staying up to date

Find out what the Nature Recovery Team are up to at our Nature Recovery Hub | Let's Talk Cornwall.

Follow the Local Nature Partnership social media online CIoS Local Nature Partnership Official: Instagram, Facebook | Linktree.

Find out about Forest for Cornwall - Cornwall Council.

For any queries please contact: grow-nature@cornwall.gov.uk