National Nature Reserves: Developing a landscape scale partnership

The North Kent Woods and Downs National Nature Reserve (NNR) is a partnership of landowners and land managers who have come together to commit land to nature conservation in perpetuity.  White Horse Ecology played a vital role in the development of this partnership and gathering evidence to support the declaration of the NNR.

Partnership National Nature Reserves

Natural England declare many of the best places in the country for wildlife as National Nature Reserves.  These are areas that are managed specifically for nature conservation, and in recent years the focus has been on declaring land owned by multiple partners operating at a landscape scale.  The North Kent Woods and Downs NNR is an example of this, bringing together landowners such as National Trust, Woodland Trust, Plantlife, Kent County Council and the Silverhand Estate vineyard.  Overarching co-ordination of the partnership was provided by the Kent Downs National Landscape who worked with Natural England to make the case for declaration.

White Horse Ecology's role in the NNR

White Horse Ecology was contracted by the Kent Downs National Landscape to project manage the work to declare the NNR which included:

  • Bringing together the partnership and helping partners commit to the declaration
  • Building an evidence base for the quality of the land being declared including GIS mapping support
  • Liaising with Natural England to provide information to support the declaration process
  • Holding workshops with partners and other key stakeholders and write the Management Framework for the NNR, which guides partnership work over the next 10 years 
  • Securing funding to support the work of the partnership

Building strong partnerships for nature

White Horse Ecology brings a unique blend of experience, exceptional relationship-building skills, and adaptability to all of our projects.  We are committed to creating lasting partnerships that benefit both people and wildlife, ensuring the long-term future of nature conservation initiatives and the partnerships that drive them forward.

The partnerships of the NNR contained diverse groups including national charities, local authorities, statutory organisations and private companies.  One of the primary successes of this declaration has been the way these partners with varied aims and objectives have formed a coherent working group with a shared vision.