Local Action Project Final Report Published

Publication now live on Defra website

Defra’s Local Action Project aimed to work with local communities to enhance the value of natural capital in our towns, cities and other urban spaces to improve people’s lives, the environment and economic prosperity. It took a partnership approach that will enable local communities and civil society groups to discover their vision for where they live and to help them to form effective stakeholder-partnerships that can realise this.

The project assisted in meeting the requirement of Defra’s 25-Year plan to help individuals and organisations to understand the economic, social and cultural value of nature, the impact that their actions have on it, and to use this knowledge to make better decisions and facilitate the design of sustainable financing models.

The Local Action Project provided research and development outputs that presented robust data, evidence and information on the benefits of green infrastructure and natural capital along with a method that helps communities build consensus, facilitate local decision-making and secure funding for natural capital improvements.

The Local Action Project was funded by Defra (project number: WT1580) and ran from March 2015 to April 2016. The project was led by the Westcountry Rivers Trust who have extensive experience of evaluating ecosystem services and working in partnership with a variety of stakeholders. The Project Board contained members from Defra, the Environment Agency, Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and Imperial College London.

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