Following a meeting of its Board, Natural England has announced that an additional £72m will be spent on the natural environment this year. Further to an additional £68m for green farming schemes, Natural England has announced that it will allocate an extra £4m this year towards protecting and enhancing the marine environment, improving biodiversity and researching renewable energy options in the Severn Barrage. Despite the uncertainty in funding for the next two years, Natural England has also taken a decision to give funding certainty over a three-year period to our key partners. Activity spend for our protected landscapes and habitats including Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and National Nature Reserves (NNR) will be maintained at 07/08 funding levels, to a total of £17m. In order to continue the good rate of progress in improving Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) announced earlier this month, Natural England has maximised the use of the Wildlife Enhancement Scheme (WES) with a budget of £9.5m, using more Higher Level Scheme (HLS) funding to support SSSI delivery. There will be efficiency savings of £16.5m to Natural England’s budget over the next three years, including £1.1m through the recent termination of the Discovering Lost Ways project.
7 May 2008
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