Natural Course celebrates winning top award at the Landscape Institute Awards ceremony

Natural Course is pleased to announce success at the Landscape Institute Awards Ceremony 2019 winning in the ‘Transforming through Management and Science’ category

The ceremony celebrates the value of landscape in connecting people, place and nature, with awards presented to professionals in recognition of their outstanding work and to encourage excellence.

Charting a Natural Course:  An Ecosystem Services Opportunities Map and Natural Capital Account for the River Irwell

This pioneering project mapped habitats along the whole of the River Irwell and used the data to create a Natural Capital account.  The account identifies and gives value to those environmental assets which provide benefits, and so furthers our understanding of the scale and value of ecosystem services in the Irwell Management Catchment.

Crucial tools like Natural Capital accounts, help us to highlight where and how ecosystem services can be enhanced alongside river restoration and economic development projects in and around Greater Manchester.  They also help us to promote investment in the natural environment, by enabling investors, decision makers and land managers to identify opportunities for Green Infrastructure improvements more easily.

The project also included the creation of an interactive ecosystems mapping tool which helps to identify where the greatest potential opportunities are, as well as a range of other opportunities based on a different parameters.  The map not only visualises these opportunities, but also gives appropriate types of interventions and priorities for investment in Natural Capital.

Krista Patrick (Natural Capital Coordinator, Greater Manchester Environment Team) collected the award at the prestigious ceremony held in London, where David Attenborough was guest host.

 “This ground-breaking project has given us a better understanding of the benefits the River Irwell provides for the Irwell Management Catchment, and we will use this to help direct investment to areas that need it most”

With over 180 entries to the awards it was tough competition, which makes it an even more fantastic result for both the project and the region to be acknowledged at this level.  This project is completely replicable across different landscapes and scales, we are wanting more to follow our lead and take on this approach.

To find out more, you can access the full Irwell Management Catchment: Natural Capital Account and Ecosystem Services Opportunities Mapping report here

Or contact Krista Patrick, Natural Capital Coordinator GMCA: krista.patrick@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk

Natural Course celebrates winning top award at the Landscape Institute Awards ceremony