Natural England - The natural environment in 2060
The natural environment in 2060
Never before has the environment been under so much pressure (driven by rising populations) and never before has it been subject to so much change (driven by climate) as it is today. The natural environment is not a luxury for society – it critically underpins and delivers a wide range of goods and services, from food and water, to flood defence and carbon storage. Significant changes are happening now to these services, and more are on the way.
Making the most of space – an alternative
to the traditional garden or wall
What does that mean for decisions that we make today?
There are three elements to making the right choices for the future of the natural environment;
- understanding how nature supports our everyday lives
- identifying future trends – both risks and opportunities and
- having a goal or vision for what we want to achieve
How nature supports our everyday lives
The natural environment is essential for the well being of people, so decisions made today must safeguard our natural resources.
Our report No charge? Valuing the natural environment sets out the contribution that nature makes to our economy (such as clean water, carbon storage) to ensure that its value is recognised.
Read Helen Phillips' speech from the launch on 14 October 2009.
Identifying future trends
Whilst we cannot predict what the future holds, we can look at long term trends and consider what these might mean for us and the environment we live in, in 2060. Within Natural England we have:
Undertaken a rigorous analysis of data on future trends to identify key factors that will impact on the natural environment. [NECR030 - Global drivers of change to 2060]
Developed four scenarios of how the world might look in 2060 and carried out an initial assessment of the long term risks and opportunities that could influence the natural environment by 2060. [NERR031 - England’s natural environment in 2060 - issues, implications and scenarios with associated research note RIN031.]
The report explores how our behaviours and factors such as technological progress may play out and what that might mean for the natural environment.Looked at other related scenarios and compared these with ours. [NECR031 - Scenarios compendium]
We have used these scenarios to inform the uplands vision.
Defra Land Use Project: Demonstrator Case Studies Workstream
The study, to demonstrate multi-functional use of land, was developed through discussions between Defra, Natural England, Foresight, Department of Communities and Local Government. A series of seven case studies were selected from over 50 land use initiatives and used to produce an evidence base. This evidence base was then used to inform the Foresight Land Use Futures project due to be launched in February 2010.
Two outputs from the study are the Final Report 
, funded by Defra Land Use Team, and its associated Executive Summary .
Strangford Lough tidal turbine
A goal or vision
We are also keen to create a vision of what a healthy environment should look like, something to aim for and inspire action – by people, government at national, regional and local level, public bodies and the private sector. Natural England is developing an integrated vision for how the natural environment of England should look in 50 years time and how it will contribute to the needs of society. We want this to be more than a Natural England view, we want others to contribute and with us build a vision of the future. We will do this by working with others to develop a vision and a plan (strategy) for achieving it. Our ambition is that it will inspire and motivate decision-makers across society to take decisions in ways which will secure a healthy future for the natural environment.
Upland futures
Ullswater catchment – providing a range
of ecosystem services
(English Heritage/NMR/Aerofilms Collection)
The initial element in developing our vision for the natural environment to 2060, from mountain top to sea bed, has begun with the launch of Vital Uplands, Natural England’s vision for the upland environment in 2060, on 12 November 2009.
This builds on the multiple benefits that the natural environment provides, advocated in our 'No charge?' report above.
The specific contribution of the uplands is detailed in:
Mapping Values: the vital nature of our uplands – an atlas linking environment and people which describes, through maps, many of the benefits people derive from the upland environment and how we might secure these for the future.
Economic Valuation of Upland Ecosystem Services - explains a method for exploring the economic implications of land use change in the uplands at a variety of scales. Contains 6 upland case studies.
Upland Ecosystem Services - assesses the links between environment, land management and service delivery which explain our understanding of the evidence behind 4 key upland ecosystem services.
Delivering nature’s services is a pioneering, demonstration project which will show how the upland vision could work in practice in 3 different upland areas.
Contact us
If you have any comments please contact the vision project directly.