A broad strategy from the West Midlands Combined Authority sets out 62 actions to safeguard and expand green spaces, waterways, and wildlife, including habitat restoration, river and canal improvements, more tree planting, and bigger urban green areas.

The plan, developed with councils, environmental groups, communities, businesses, and academics, aims to boost biodiversity, health and wellbeing, and regional prosperity by protecting and enlarging nature sites and restoring habitats.

The Local Nature Recovery Strategy emphasizes 62 concrete steps to enhance biodiversity, improve wellbeing, and foster prosperity by expanding green space, restoring habitats, and cleaning up rivers and canals.

A core project involves re-naturalising the River Rea near Birmingham to cut flood risk and boost wildlife, led by Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust with the Environment Agency, with a long-term goal of reintroducing native brown trout.

The River Rea restoration near Birmingham city centre is a flagship effort to re-naturalise the river, reduce flood risk, and promote wildlife, aiming to bring back native brown trout over time.

The plan seeks to raise biodiversity, improve quality of life for roughly three million people, help communities adapt to climate change, and create green jobs, backed by both private and public funding.

Mayor Richard Parker underscored that the region’s landscapes—from industrial heritage and canals to parks and large greens—are central to health, education and economic vitality, and must be safeguarded for future generations.

Parker highlighted Birmingham’s notable green spaces—Sutton Park, Saltwells Nature Reserve and Sandwell Valley—as vital to health, prosperity and attractiveness, and stressed the strategy will ensure these spaces endure for the future.

The strategy was crafted in partnership with local councils, environmental groups, community groups, businesses, educators, landowners, farmers and developers, and was unveiled by the mayor at a River Rea restoration site near Birmingham.

Plans envisage up to £100 million in mixed private and public funding for hundreds of environmental projects, building on £1.6 million already invested to support 50+ community-led schemes that expanded green space access and restored habitat.

The West Midlands Nature Investment Hub is set to launch next year to mobilize up to £100 million for regionwide environmental initiatives.

Already, the WMCA has allocated £1.6 million to over 50 community projects, improving green space access for more than 500,000 residents, restoring 245,000 square metres of wildlife habitat, and generating around 260 green jobs and training opportunities.