Nature recovery at scale: why the National Estate for Nature matters to land managers

Earlier this month, Defra published its 30by30 delivery plan for conserving 30% of England’s land for Nature by 2030. This stems from an international commitment that the UK made, along with 198 other countries, to reverse biodiversity decline by conserving 30% of land and seas for nature by 2030.

As with all roadmaps for delivering policy goals, a key question is not just what should be done, but who should do it. While there is a role for everyone in delivering 30by30, Defra has established the National Estate for Nature (NEN) group as a key delivery partner and first movers who can drive a broader movement towards nature recovery. This mirrors action across the border in Wales, where landowners are teaming up as Nature Estate Cymru to plant trees and deliver Wales’s 30by30 commitments.

In this blog, we focus on England to explore who NEN are, what it is and how its work might inform your own approach to nature recovery on your land.

The NEN group was convened by the government in March 2025 to drive progress towards England’s environmental goals, from 30by30 to the full suite of land-based environmental targets in the Environment Act.

The group is made up of large landowners from the public, private and third sectors who collectively own around 10% of England’s land. An illustrative list of group members is given below, and a full list can be found here.

Their large land holdings mean that NEN members, including the government, are uniquely placed to directly contribute to nature recovery. The NEN group is therefore expected to lead the way on environmental delivery by taking action on their own land and working together to deliver nature restoration in a more coordinated way. NEN members have also committed to pooling their collective experience and expertise to share with others and encourage wider action for the environment.

The creation of the NEN group signals the government’s view that large landowners have an important role to play in delivering nature restoration and broader environmental targets. More specifically, from both taking action on their own lands and testing new ideas to inspire others. For some CLA members, this has led to direct involvement in the NEN group. For others, the NEN group may offer future opportunities for partnership working, or learning opportunities as the group develops new approaches to nature recovery.

The significance of NEN comes from its intended function as an engine for developing new approaches to nature restoration policy and practice. The convening of the NEN group reflects a change towards nature restoration approaches that:

• Restore nature on a large scale, rather than small and isolated patches
• Work with other policies and plans, including Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs, so action for nature restoration is more coordinated and has greater impact
• Build collaborations and share practical solutions to inspire others
• Also work for other important goals like food production and business profitability, using the principles of the Land Use Framework

Many of these goals have been on policy agendas for some time. However, the NEN group is fundamentally intended to be a testbed for developing the policies, governance arrangements and land management approaches needed to deliver them in practice. Therefore, for many land managers and CLA members, the significance of the NEN group will likely lie in how its work influences future policy, funding and strategic approaches to delivering environmental outcomes.

To date, the group has largely focused on establishing shared objectives and standards for members to follow and developing them into individual management plans.

The NEN group aims to achieve more widespread, integrated and landscape scale action through three broad mechanisms:

• Taking action on members’ own landholdings
• Experimenting and innovating to develop new land management approaches
• Catalysing wider action by knowledge-sharing and collaboration

Taking action

NEN members have committed to developing estate management plans that set out how they intend to contribute to Environment Act targets and England’s 30by30 commitment. The plans are expected to apply the principles of the Land Use Framework and align with Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS). All NEN members have now published estate management plans with the exception of two private sector organisations.

Experimenting and innovating

Participants in the NEN group are also expected to develop and evaluate approaches to nature restoration that can co-deliver other priorities like food production and business resilience. Consistent approaches to baselining, mapping and monitoring are a key part of this work and are intended to support shared learning.

Catalysing wider action

Finally, the group aims to catalyse wider action by sharing best practice, identifying barriers to delivery, and facilitating collaboration, capacity building and knowledge exchange among other landowners.

So how do the estate management plans measure up to these ambitions? We’ll take a look at the Government Estate Nature Plan (GENP) to understand what NEN members’ efforts might look like in practice.

The plan was published in June 2026 and is fairly light on operational details. However, it outlines a clear approach to piloting innovative landscape management approaches.

Taking action

The government’s approach is to invest £4.1m into a series of ‘lighthouse projects’ on government land between April 2027 and 2030. The projects are designed to test approaches to delivering nature connectivity and recovery at a landscape scale, while simultaneously delivering other critical priorities.

The degree of alignment between the lighthouse projects and other environmental goals and strategies remains to be seen and will become more clear when the projects are launched. At present, the GENP makes a general commitment to addressing statutory environmental goals and aligning with LNRSs, rather than outlining specific targets and actions.

The GENP partially fulfils the government’s commitment to demonstrate how the Land Use Framework principles can be applied to land. However, the GENP largely focuses on evaluating how the principle of ‘multifunctionality’ can be delivered by addressing other operational priorities alongside nature restoration. The other three principles will need explicit attention if the GENP is to act as a full demonstration of how the Land Use Framework principles can be applied to land.

Experimenting and innovating

The GENP’s monitoring and evaluation aims to fulfil two important goals: evaluating the outcomes of the lighthouse projects and their future potential and assessing the effectiveness of the GENP delivery model.

The lighthouse projects will be monitored and evaluated using a natural capital approach to establish:

• Their contributions to both nature targets and wider operational priorities
• Their costs and value for money
• Whether they are replicable and scalable to other parts of the government estate

The GENP delivery model will be assessed for its contributions to:

• Improving coordination and governance effectiveness
• Increasing shared capability and data across government departments
• Reducing duplication of effort and risk
• Boosting policy coherence

Each of these learnings can make a valuable contribution to supporting balanced and feasible approaches to nature restoration, alongside other priorities.

Catalysing wider action

The GENP currently only offers some priority areas for action to catalyse wider nature restoration and stops short of a full strategy. Key priorities include:

• Breaking down the siloes between government departments
• Delivering lighthouse projects through partnership working
• Developing actions to address policy priorities and barriers to delivery
• Using the NEN forum to share best practices and lessons learned

Developing a more detailed strategy that expands on these priorities and extends engagement beyond the NEN group will likely be necessary if the government is to catalyse nature restoration across its own estates and more widely.

Implications for NEN members will likely be highly shaped by how this wider strategy for knowledge exchange and engagement develops.

Going forward, we'll be following with interest as NEN group plans move from paper to practice. As part of this, the CLA will be taking a deeper dive into how individual NEN members are putting nature restoration into practice on the ground. We’ll draw out practical lessons on what's working, what barriers remain and how these approaches might translate to other landholdings, including those of CLA members.

So, watch this space!