Twelve square miles of Lincolnshire coastline are to become the first of 25 national nature reserves created to celebrate next week’s Coronation of King Charles III.
It’ll be declared bu National England as the first in a series of reserves under the banner of the King’s Series of National Nature Reserves.
Five new reserves will be created every year for the next five years reserves by Natural England, with the first – the Lincolnshire Coronation Coast National Nature Reserve –declared by Natural England this summer. The Lincolnshire Reserve contains a variety of sand dunes, saltmarsh, mudflats, and freshwater marshes which support many breeding and wintering birds, natterjack toads, special plants and insects.
As the government’s focus moves on from an era of nature conservation to nature recovery to create spaces for wildlife to thrive, this new series showcases our ambition for bigger, better and more connected spaces for nature – building on the 221 declared in the reign of her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Tony Juniper, Chair of Natural England, said: “For more than five decades our King has been at the forefront of thinking about the need to restore our depleted natural world. He has highlighted the vital importance of sustainable agriculture, questions of water security, solutions to climate change and the urgency of moving to a circular economy inspired by nature. He’s helped make progress on all these and other subjects while having people’s wellbeing at the centre of his ideas.
“It is fitting that Natural England begins the process of declaring 25 new National Nature Reserves that will be called the ‘King’s Series’, marking His Majesty’s Coronation and the new era of nature recovery that is now enshrined in national law and global agreements.
“The National Nature Reserves are the jewels in the crown of England’s nature and they are there for wildlife and people alike. The first one in this new series will be a very substantial area of protected habitat on the Lincolnshire coast, through which a section of the England Coast Path will soon be opened by Natural England.”
• MEANWHILE, every state-funded primary school is to be sent wildflower seeds for children to plant. In a collaboration between the Department for Education and Cornwall’s Eden Project, more than 200,000 seeds packets will be sent to schools, representing 40 hectares of new wildflower areas being planted up across England to support our pollinators. If planted together that would create around 40 rugby pitch sized wildflowers meadows – a small but vital step in boosting biodiversity.
