Protected Landscapes Targets and Outcomes Framework
PUBLISHED ON: 2 JULY 2025What is the Environmental Improvement Plan and the Protected Landscapes Targets and Outcomes Framework?
The UK Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) 2023 sets out the role Protected Landscapes (National Parks and National Landscapes) can play in recovering nature and meeting the EIP apex goals of thriving plants & wildlife, mitigating and adapting to climate change, and enhancing beauty, heritage and engagement with the natural environment. It also set out the need for an outcomes framework for Protected Landscapes which would set targets for the contributions National Parks and National Landscapes can make to national environment commitments.
In 2024 the Protected Landscapes Targets and Outcomes Framework – GOV.UK was published. The targets are for the Protected Landscapes as places (the geographic area covered by the designation, rather than an individual body or organisation); and action will be coordinated through the statutory Management/Partnership Plan. It is the responsibility of all stakeholders, partners and land managers in the area to support their delivery.
The targets and indicators are expected to be the priorities for Protected Landscapes over the coming years and decades, enabling partners across the New Forest National Park to come together and drive activity towards these outcomes.
How did we agree our targets?
While many of the national targets and measures are standardised across all Protected Landscapes, each Protected Landscape has had the opportunity to set the ambition for 3 of the targets:
- Protect and restore wildlife-rich habitats outside of Protected Sites (e.g. SSSIs) by 2042
- Restore peat by 2050
- Tree and woodland cover by 2050
Natural England proposed an initial ambition for each of these, based on a methodology used across all the Protected Landscapes consistently. We wanted to be sure the specific context of the New Forest National Park was reflected in the ambition and ensure we set stretching targets but still with a sensible level of achievability and realism.
By drawing on various evidence from our own sources and from others, we have amended the original proposed ambition. We then shared these proposals and the reasoning with our stakeholders, the Partnership Plan Officers Group and the Partnership Plan Leaders Panel, which both agreed the proposals.
In June 2025, we submitted the proposals to the New Forest National Park Resources, Accountability and Performance Committee, where they were formally agreed.
You can find the agreed targets here.
Image courtesy credit: Zacary Colverson
