LNRS user guides: Community groups

More than 120 community groups across Oxfordshire are already helping to create a greener, fairer and more nature-rich county. From local nature reserves to neighbourhood gardens and allotments, community work is vital to reversing biodiversity loss, restoring habitats and connecting people with nature.

You can use the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) to:

• plan or scale up your activities
• access funding
• show how your work supports Oxfordshire's nature goals

Take action in your area

Every community can support nature by creating or improving habitats in places you use or manage. This could include:

• gardens and allotments
• religious grounds
• sports pitches
• woodlands and grasslands
• ponds and fens

Choose an action from the statement of biodiversity priorities that your group could deliver. These actions were shaped by input from councils, organisations, and communities. By delivering them, you are directly contributing to Oxfordshire’s nature recovery goals.

Use the local habitat map

Some parts of Oxfordshire are especially well-suited for restoring and connecting areas of nature. Use the local habitat map to:

• See if the LNRS has mapped particular actions near your area that your group could help with, such as enhancing a verge or creating a pond.
• Create funding applications by using the map as part of your ecological evidence and explaining how you plan to deliver the recommendations.
• You can adapt the recommendations on the map to suit your space, budget and time.

Even if your community area isn't mapped, there are still plenty of actions your group can take – the Statement of Biodiversity Priorities has a number of unmapped measures that could benefit nature in all kinds of habitats as well as community-used spaces.

Support rare and threatened local wildlife

Nearly 900 species in Oxfordshire are threatened or at risk with extinction. The species priorities list explains which species need extra help locally, which may live in your local area, and what you could do to help. The list includes wildlife such as hedgehogs, bats, swifts, various butterflies, house martins, and certain types of flowers, plants and trees.

Have a look at the list to see if there’s any actions your group might be able to take. You can use the LNRS as evidence for funders and with local people to show why the project matters and to explain what needs to happen.

Learn about nature in Oxfordshire

Find out more about nature and the challenges it faces, you can read and explore sections of our description of strategy area document. Information in this document can help you to connect your local actions to national priorities. For example, the UK has committed to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 (30by30), to support the global 30by30 target agreed at the UN Biodiversity Summit (COP15) in 2022.

The more you know, the more confidently you can act and advocate.

Be an advocate for nature and get involved in planning and policy

Your voice matters. Using the LNRS you can:

• Take part in planning consultations (local authorities must have regard to the LNRS) and you can ask them to make this clear.
• Use the LNRS as evidence in conversations with your local councils or consultations such as the creation of neighbourhood plans. You could join a neighbourhood plan group and help embed nature into local visions by asking them to help deliver LNRS actions such as urban tree planting, green roofs, sustainable drainage, orchard creation and more.
• Report local wildlife sightings to support research and share your records
• Run workshops, talks or awareness events as a group using the LNRS documents and map to describe which actions are important and what you plan to do.

Resources and support

• BBOWT and Freshwater Habitats Trust provide practical advice and habitat management support.
• 'Caring for God’s Acre' provides habitat support for burial grounds (of any denomination, religion or none, and any size).
• CAG Oxfordshire offer help to start or strengthen a community group, including training and small grants.
• Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment (TOE) offer funding up to £25,000 for habitat work on public greenspaces.
• Wild Oxfordshire’s Town and Parish Guide to Nature Recovery provides tips for mapping and managing local green spaces.
• Connect with other local groups: Find your Local Group, Oxford Conservation Volunteers
• View the Mycelium Map which helps communities grow stronger and greener faster, by joining the green dots and find others taking action near you or promote your own group.
• For help to develop a map that shows your plan for nature recovery actions, contact CAG.