Landscapes for everyone

National Parks are places that restore physical and mental health and wellbeing. They inspire a deeper connection to nature.

We believe everyone should be able to discover and engage with them, to benefit the health and wellbeing of the whole nation.

They must bevalued as a key part of our heritage, inspiring people, both young and old, to have pride in, a passion for, and actively engage in our protected landscapes

We will work towards National Parks being landscapes that:

  • Improve people's health, wellbeing and recovery

    through equitable access and connection to nature and culture

  • Provide outstanding learning experiences

    that all young people having visited and enoyed

  • Have initiatives for underrepresented groups

    including minorities and people living with health inequalities

  • Inspire deeper connection to nature

    inspiring people, both young and old, to have pride in and a passion for our protected landscapes

We will do this by:

➡️Working through our strong local partnerships, other government departments, schools, and health sector partners to co-create programmes that are specifically tailored to meet the needs of underrepresented park users.

➡️ Making our collective communications focus on making National Parks more relevant to underrepresented groups and inspiring as many people as possible to enhance their nature connectedness as a route to physical and mental wellbeing.

We will deliver:

  • Improved understanding of the benefits that experiences in nature can bring to improve peoples’ health, wellbeing, and recovery.

  • Signposting opportunities and resources in National Parks to support referrals and the social prescribing agenda.

  • A more inclusive programme of big walks and adventures for families, schools, essential workers, visible minorities and under-represented groups.

  • An opportunity for every child to visit a National Park throughout their school career to enjoy outstanding learning experiences.

  • deeper connection to nature for young people through carefully designed engagement activities, and visits to protected landscapes for fieldwork, day trips and residential trips.

  • A progressive set of experiences throughout an individual’s life to support them in their journey to becoming Outdoor Citizens.

  • Greater public awareness and understanding of National Parks and a feeling that National Parks are relevant to their life and their choices about lifestyle and wellbeing.

Our programme

Landscapes for Health and Wellbeing

This programme will be centered around three themes: prevention of ill-health, restorative benefits of National Parks, and the provision of excellence in natural health solutions.

Youth Ambassadors for Protected Landscapes

This programme will establish an outdoor learning programme for all school children to experience National Parks, strengthen relationships and enable partners to collectively promote understanding and engagement with protected landscapes. We will work with Defra to support a post-COVID initiative to continue and promote the public practice of regularly walking in their local area. Should Defra not engage as the primary funder for this programme, English NPAs will consider other avenues for its delivery. In addition, a number of NPAs are working to develop a family-based John Muir Award.

Inspiring more people to care more about nature and National Parks

This programme will work with partners to improve outreach to and dialogue with urban and disadvantaged communities. It will link with existing communications initiatives in each of the Parks to widen the appeal of National Parks to more diverse audiences, inspire more people to take an active role in protecting and enhancing protected landscapes, and show how National Parks play a role in the UK’s Green Recovery.

We are more than the sum of our parts

Working at a landscape scale is a strength of National Park Authorities.

We don’t own much of the land, only around 10%, so we regularly work with farmers, landowners, the community and many other bodies across the entirety of National Parks.

With a breadth of collective expertise - ecologists, planners, environmental scientists and rangers - we know our landscapes in depth, and we know the impacts that climate change and biodiversity loss are having on them. This gives our local partnerships many of the answers to nature recovery.