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Improving strategic planning for nature Panacea or pandoras box for the built and natural environment

11 Oct 2024

Improving strategic planning for nature: Panacea or pandora’sbox for the built and natural environment?

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Abstract This paper assesses how strategic planning fornature can be improved for England’s built and naturalenvironment using mainstreaming and landscape-scaleconcepts. Whilst both concepts feature in academicliterature, there has been limited attention on their role ascatalytic agents for strategic planning. Addressing this gap,evidence is used from two stakeholder workshopsinvolving 62 senior policy experts managing a range ofoperational and hypothetical strategic spatial planningchallenges. The results reveal a significantly weakenedstrategic planning arena characterised by policydisintegration, short termism and uncertainty. Keyfindings highlight the fallacy of pursuing strategicplanning for nature in isolation from wider policyintegration fusing environmental, economic and socialcomponents from the outset. Current barriers to progressinclude institutional inertia, technocratic vocabularies andneoliberalist priorities exacerbated by a weak underlyingtheory. Conversely opportunities for mainstreamingprocesses may help knowledge generation and exchangewithin transdisciplinary partnerships, whilst landscapescale thinking can improve understanding of issues usingnatures inherent geometry transforming processes andoutcomes. The paper recommends the adoption ofstrategic planning pathways using mainstreaming andlandscape-scale approaches working in tandem. Whilstfocused on the English context, our findings aretransferable to other planning systems in the GlobalNorth, especially those championing neoliberal marketled policies.

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