Part 6: Nature and Biodiversity Section 106: Content of local nature recovery strategies
This section defines the required content of an LNRS, setting out the general nature of the documents that each LNRS must comprise and the information that these documents must contain. It also provides for the Secretary of State to issue statutory guidance to provide further detail.
	Subsection (1) provides that each LNRS must include (a) a statement of biodiversity priorities for the plan area and (b) a local habitat map for the full extent of the area under the plan, either through one or multiple maps.
	Subsection (2) specifies what the statement of biodiversity priorities referred to under subsection (1)(a) must include. The required elements are:
a description of the plan area and its biodiversity;
a description of the opportunities for recovering or enhancing biodiversity;
the priorities for recovering or enhancing biodiversity; and
proposals of potential measures relating to those priorities.
	In combination these elements are intended to provide a comprehensive vision of the current and future potential biodiversity value of the plan area, and some proposed practical steps that different bodies may choose to support to help make improvements.
	Subsection (3) specifies what the local habitat map referred to under subsection (1)(b) must include. The required elements are:
national conservation sites;
local nature reserves (as designated under section 21 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949); and
other areas that, in the opinion of the responsible authority, are or could become of particular importance for biodiversity, or where the recovery or enhancement of biodiversity could make a particular contribution to other environmental benefits.
	The term "national conservation sites" is defined in section 108(3). National conservation sites and local nature reserves are treated separately because information on them will be made available to the responsible authority via different mechanisms. Section 107 creates a duty on the Secretary of State to provide responsible authorities with mapped information on national conservation sites, whilst information on local nature reserves is held by local authorities. Where a local authority is not the responsible authority, a requirement for them to provide information on local nature reserves to the responsible authority could be introduced via regulations made under section 105(4) to make sure that this forms part of the LNRS.
	Subsection (3)(c)(i) is what is sometimes referred to as ‘biodiversity opportunity mapping’. The government is aware of more than a dozen different examples of biodiversity opportunity maps that have been produced by local authorities or on their behalf – such as Surrey Nature Partnership’s Biodiversity Opportunity Areas: the basis for realising Surrey’s ecological network . It is intended that LNRSs will build on and seek to accommodate existing best practice.
	Subsection (3)(c)(ii) allows for the opportunities included in the local habitat map to consider other environmental benefits alongside recovering and enhancing biodiversity. For example, planting a new area of woodland for biodiversity would also sequester carbon, and potentially reduce the likelihood of flooding downstream. Intentionally targeting such multiple benefits may prove more cost-efficient and, in turn, such proposals may be more likely to be acted upon. Statutory guidance made under subsection (5) provides a mechanism by which approaches to including multiple environmental objectives could be applied consistently across all LNRSs.
	Subsection (4) establishes that a local habitat map that only partially covers the area within the plan must correlate to the area of at least one of the local authorities within the plan area. This is intended to avoid an individual local authority, other than potentially a county council, from having to contribute to and consider more than one local habitat map.
	Subsection (5) allows the Secretary of State to issue guidance on the information that an LNRS must include, in relation to the biodiversity priorities, the local habitat map or any other matter. Guidance is intended to assist responsible authorities in preparing an LNRS and to promote consistency between LNRSs.
	Subsection (6) sets out that when the responsible authority is preparing an LNRS, it must have regard to any guidance that has been issued by the Secretary of State under subsection (5). This gives the guidance issued under subsection (5) greater standing and effect in achieving its purpose. The issuing of new or revised guidance would not require a responsible authority to revisit an LNRS that has already been published.
	Subsection (7) requires guidance made under this section to be laid before Parliament before it is published.