Nature Recovery Plan

• Archaeophyte

A non-native species introduced by humans to a region before the year 1492.

• Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)

A mandatory requirement in the UK for developers to ensure their projects leave nature in a 10% better state than before.

• Buffer Zone

A protective "blanket" or neutral area surrounding a core habitat to shield it from urban pressures, noise, and chemical spray.

• Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF)

A management style that avoids clear-felling, using selective thinning to create a multi-generational forest with a permanent canopy.

• Core Area

A high-quality habitat hub (like an SSSI) that acts as an "engine room" for biodiversity and a source for species populations.

• Ecological Shock

A sudden, dramatic change to an environment, such as clear-felling a forest or plowing ancient pasture, that disrupts local wildlife.

• Functional Connectivity

A measure of how easily a specific species can move through a landscape, based on that animal's reality rather than human maps.

• Genetic Isolation

The result of species being trapped in small, disconnected "islands" of habitat, leading to inbreeding and vulnerability to disease.

• Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS)

A statutory blueprint and opportunity map designed to identify where habitat connectivity will deliver the highest ecological return.

• Neophyte

A non-native species introduced by humans to a region after the year 1492.

• Palimpsest

A term used to describe a landscape that has many layers of history (geological and human) written over it, with traces of the old still visible.

• Paper Parks

Protected areas that are legally designated on a map but are biologically stagnant due to a lack of active management.

• SSSI

Site of Special Scientific Interest; a legal designation protecting the best of wildlife, geological, or physiographical heritage.

• Stepping Stones

Small, disconnected patches of habitat (like ponds or gardens) that allow mobile species to "hop" across a developed landscape.

• Trophic Cascades

Powerful indirect interactions that control entire ecosystems, such as an apex predator's influence on soil health.

• Worthless Land Hypothesis

The historical tendency to establish nature reserves on land that was economically "worthless" for farming rather than biologically critical.