Biodiversity Action Plan

In 2021, Mid Suffolk District Council declared a biodiversity emergency, in recognition of the threats to our wildlife and ecosystems.

In response to this, we published our first Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP).

This set out the actions we would take over the next few years to benefit biodiversity across Mid Suffolk.

Most of the actions from this first plan have now been delivered, including:

  • Mapping of our tree cover
  • Planting of thousands of trees and hedges
  • Surveys of our wildlife sites
  • Creating new wildflower meadows

Whilst these actions provide some help to biodiversity, we know we need to do more.

We have now published a new and more ambitious BAP. 

Read our new Biodiversity Action Plan

Unlike the previous BAP, which focussed on specific habitats, this now focusses on how biodiversity is integrated into all we do, through these six areas:

  • Engage – provide greater opportunity for people to connect with the natural environment
  • Educate – help people to understand what can be done and why it is important
  • Expand – create bigger and more habitats
  • Enhance – manage what we have better
  • Embed – make biodiversity a routine part of what we do
  • Endure – ensure that what we do provides lasting impacts

To deliver the new BAP, we will:

  • Continue to manage our land and open spaces to support wildlife
  • Support others across the district to do more for biodiversity in their local area
  • Increase collaborative working with partner organisations and funders, to help us achieve more than we can on our ow

The BAP will help us direct future work to deliver even greater benefits to biodiversity across the district in coming years than we have already achieved.

The Biodiversity Duty Report sets out the progress the Council has made over the past five years to conserve and enhance biodiversity, embed nature recovery across council functions, and the strategic direction for continuing nature recovery in the next reporting period – 2026-2030.

You can find out more about what we’ve already achieved in the last five years and what we plan to do in the next in our Biodiversity Duty Report 2026.