environment
sustainability
economy
The natural foundations of the West of England economy
The West of England relies on the natural environment for clean water, food, recreation and climate resilience, among other benefits. Understanding this relationship is essential to not only prevent the over-exploitation of natural assets, but also for maintaining the quality of place that makes the region attractive to live, work and invest.
This policy insight examines how the natural environment underpins economic prosperity and quality of life in the West of England, comprising Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. It highlights the risks associated with the over-exploitation of nature and the opportunities to secure long-term economic resilience through sustainable environmental management.
Like many regions, the West of England is exposed to the risks associated with environmental decline, but it would also benefit from nature recovery. Investments in the restoration and sustainable management of the region's natural assets are needed to strengthen resource security and maintain the attractiveness of the region as a place to live, work and invest. In this way, the natural environment should not simply be regarded as a conservation asset, but as a foundational component of the region's economy, prosperity and resilience in a changing world.
Background: The natural environment of the West of England
The West of England has a rich and varied natural environment spanning coastal landscapes, river valleys, hills, woodlands and urban green spaces. The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) Local Nature Recovery Strategy identifies eight broad habitat types: woodland and trees; wetlands; grasslands; heathland and scrub; rivers and streams; coastal and estuarine habitats; urban and built environments; and farmland habitats (WECA, 2025). These habitats support a wide range of species while providing important benefits for communities and businesses across the region.
The region encompasses parts of several National Character Areas, which are recognised by Natural England as distinctive landscapes shaped by their biodiversity, geology and land use. These include the Mendip Hills, the Cotswolds, the Severn Estuary and the Avon Valleys. The region also contains nationally important landscapes, including Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) in the Cotswolds and the Mendip Hills. These landscapes contribute significantly to the region's identity, attractiveness and quality of life.
Despite the significance of these natural assets, many habitats across the region face pressure from development, agricultural intensification, pollution and long-term changes in land management. Rivers and floodplains have been modified or lost in many locations, while structures such as weirs are restricting the movement of fish and other species. These pressures are particularly evident in the Severn Estuary, where maintaining ecological health will be critical to sustaining the economic benefits that nature provides the West of England.
The importance of the Severn Estuary
One of the region's most significant natural assets is the Severn Estuary. With a tidal range of up to 15 metres (the second-highest tidal range in the world; Langston et al., 2010), it is one of the UK's most important estuarine ecosystems.
The Severn Estuary performs an important ecological function by linking several major river basins, including the Bristol Avon, Usk, Severn and Wye. This connectivity supports a network of habitats upon which many freshwater and marine species depend throughout their life cycles. For example, the estuary supports diverse marine and migratory fish species and provides nursery habitats for a wide range of marine species from the surrounding seas. It also supports internationally significant populations of migratory and overwintering wading birds.
The estuary is designated as both a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a Ramsar site because of its importance for biodiversity.
In addition to its environmental importance, the estuary's ecological health is closely connected to activities taking place in the areas that surround it. For instance, the estuary supports a substantial number of commercial and recreational fisheries. In this way, the estuary significantly affects adjacent communities and economies while, conversely, activities undertaken on adjacent land have potentially beneficial or deleterious ramifications for the estuarine ecosystem (Birol and Cox, 2007).
Ecological change in the West of England and elsewhere
Data on the long-term ecological change in the West of England has so far been relatively limited. However, available data indicate that grassland, wetland and woodland habitats have been degraded over recent decades due to infrastructure development, agricultural intensification and urban expansion (Ridding et al., 2025). Many Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), particularly lowland grasslands and wetland habitats, are currently assessed as being in unfavourable condition (WECA, 2025).
These trends are not unique to the West of England. They reflect wider declines in biodiversity and ecosystem health across the UK. The State of Nature Report (Burns et al., 2023) identified the UK as one of the world's most nature-depleted countries, with average species abundance declining by around 19% since 1970 and approximately 16% of assessed species now threatened with extinction.
Defra has identified both biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation as risks that have implications for national resilience (Defra, 2026). When natural systems become degraded, societies face increased threats to food, water, energy and climate stability. Protecting and restoring natural capital is, therefore, not simply an environmental objective but an investment in long-term prosperity, resilience and opportunity.
The degradation of nature should also be understood in the global context. The Living Planet Index reports an average decline of 73% in monitored populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish worldwide between 1970 and 2020 (WWF and ZSL, 2024). Although the causes vary between locations, these trends illustrate the growing pressure being placed on the natural systems that underpin water security, food production and other aspects of human wellbeing and economic activity.
There is growing recognition of this across the region. WECA and its constituent local authorities have declared a Nature Emergency, and committed to protecting 30% of council-owned land for nature and increasing wildlife abundance by 30% by 2030 (WECA, 2023). These ambitions are supported by initiatives including the Climate and Ecological Strategy, Green Infrastructure Strategy and Forest of Avon Plan. WECA's Local Nature Recovery Strategy also identifies priority areas for nature recovery and biodiversity enhancement (WECA, 2025).
Why is this a matter for the economy?
For the West of England, much like elsewhere, natural assets are a foundation of the economy. This is illustrated in the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (2005), which identifies four qualitatively differing categories of benefits for humanity flowing from nature. Together, these four categories make clear how the natural environment matters profoundly for economic prosperity, well beyond altruistic concerns
Provisioning services: energy and physical materials are extracted from the natural environment, including food, water, timber and other raw materials.
Regulating services: natural ecosystems critically regulate the environment in ways that sustain human life, from pollination and water purification to flood mitigation, storm buffering and climate regulation.
Cultural services: nature enriches quality of life, improving recreation and human wellbeing while driving the tourism economy and the arts.
Supporting services: processes within the natural ecosystem, such as soil formation and nutrient cycling, maintain ecosystem integrity and functioning, including the continued production of other three service categories.
Some of these benefits are already recognised within conventional economic measures. Agricultural products, mineral resources and water supplies, for example, are traded in markets and have an easily identifiable economic value. The majority of other services, however, provide essential benefits without a direct market price. This is partly because they are less visible, or else that they are intangible. Yet, they are fundamental to the functioning of ecosystems and a foundation for economic activities.
This presents a significant challenge for policymakers. Not all services across the four categories can be accurately represented in monetary terms. Attempts to value nature solely through market mechanisms risk overlooking critical ecological functions. Regulating and supporting services are particularly vulnerable to being undervalued because their contribution is often indirect.
Still, these services underpin the environment upon which all economic activities ultimately depend.
What are the broad learnings for policymakers?
Focusing on short-term economic gains while overlooking broader ecological impacts can degrade natural assets and reduce long-term prosperity. To overcome this, effective planning and development are essential. This entails a more comprehensive understanding of the relationships between immediate economic decisions and impacts on the ecosystems that support them.
Development strategies must recognise the interdependence of ecosystem services across all four categories. Historically, policy decisions have often focused on a single service (or a small subset of services) in isolation. For example, food production, water extraction or energy production. Failing to consider the wider ramifications of policies and practices to maximise these services risks weakening the ecosystems that support those benefits, compromising their stability and capacities to sustain human needs into the future.
Agriculture provides a clear example. Food production is essential to society and the economy, but agricultural expansion and intensification are the principal drivers of habitat loss, biodiversity decline and soil erosion globally (IPBES, 2019). The decline of pollinators alone is estimated to place between $235 billion and $577 billion (2015 US$ value) of annual global crop production at risk (IPBES, 2018), further illustrating the economic importance of maintaining healthy ecosystems.
Implications for the West of England
As WECA seeks to support high-growth sectors and attract investment, comprehensive assessments are key.
As an example, the development of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and data centres in the region could create significant economic opportunities. But such facilities typically require substantial supplies of electricity and water.
In Ireland, for instance, the Central Statistics Office reported that data centres accounted for 21% of national electricity consumption in 2024, compared with 5% in 2015 (CSO, 2024). Similar developments within the West of England would need to be assessed in the context of regional resource availability, environmental capacity and wider sustainability objectives, as the demand for cooling water could reduce or deny access to water for others.
Likewise, proposals for major infrastructure projects such as tidal barrages need to be comprehensively assessed. Though they may aid the transition to a low-carbon economy and contribute to energy security, tidal barrages also alter sediment movement, nutrient cycling and ecological processes within the Severn Estuary.
The potential unintended consequences of these trade-offs highlight the importance of rigorously assessing cumulative environmental impacts alongside economic benefits and putting measures in place that adequately mitigate or offset adverse effects, or seeking alternative solutions.
Table 1: Potential policy responses to some of the principal drivers of environmental change within the West of England
Major drivers of environmental change | Practical solutions |
Intensive agriculture | WECA should work with established national organisations, such as the Soil Association, to promote agroecological methods in the region that integrate ecological principles into farming. Other solutions to be incentivised at the farm level include precision agriculture, reductions in chemical inputs and a shift to climate-resilient crops. Identification of regionally sympathetic agricultural practices can link with the WECA Local Nature Recovery Strategy, achieving agricultural outputs harmoniously with nature recovery and other societal benefits (WECA, 2025). Land use decisions made by local and regional authorities should be informed by natural capital maps. The strategic sparing of land in the region is important to host pollinator plants that play a significant role in the water cycle. |
Urban development | Progressive measures to improve urban planning include strengthening spatial planning to curb low density expansion. Instead, encouraging higher-density and mixed-use neighbourhoods that integrate public transport hubs. The integration of green infrastructure should also be mandated, including designating ecological and greenbelt corridors, and other nature-based solutions, thereby aligning development planning with climate resilience. The WECA (2026) Spatial Development Strategy is currently under development with its predecessor, the West of England Joint Spatial Plan (West of England Authorities, 2017), remaining in effect to guide sustainable growth planning. This seeks to accommodate housing, jobs and infrastructure while protecting the natural and built environment, including through nature restoration and climate adaptation. |
Land-use change | Development in the region can be better guided by strategic land use planning which integrates habitat maps and ecosystem service assessments. This will help to ensure that the important services provided by some landscapes, such as water harvesting and purification, are adequately conserved and/or effectively managed to enhance their services. The WECA Local Nature Recovery Strategy (2025) and the WECA Spatial Development Strategy (2026) address both rural and urban areas, providing guidance on land use changes that integrates economic development, nature recovery and climate resilience. This is an important step in recognising the contribution of functional landscapes to the resilience of the region. |
Habitat fragmentation | The above solutions would already help to halt and reverse habitat fragmentation, but these could be significantly enhanced by linking up subunits of the West of England Green Infrastructure Network. For example, woodland covers around 10–12% of the West of England's land area (WECA, 2025). This is broadly in line with the national average of approximately 10% (ONS, 2024). Still, woodland is unevenly distributed across the region and WECA has committed to increasing semi-natural broadleaved woodland cover by 31% by 2030 (WECA, 2025). Opportunities exist to identify ecological corridors that may also serve as ‘green transport’ routes. |
Over-exploitation | The region's water resources, as well as its soils, require sustainable management to protect their quality but also, critically, to balance their exploitation with regeneration, such that benefits provided to society and ecosystems can be sustained indefinitely. The WECA-funded Capricorn Quay Floating Ecosystem Project in Bristol's Floating Harbour is already helping mitigate ecological pressures (Bristol City Council, 2025). Still, water is near limits of exploitation within the region. Water limitation can be further addressed both through demand reduction measures, such as the retrofitting of water fixtures and technologies in existing buildings, and by exploring opportunities for water harvesting and regeneration of groundwater resources. The latter should be linked with sympathetic land uses, such as regenerative agriculture and sustainable forestry. The WECA Local Nature Recovery Strategy presents a framework not just to reduce pressures on nature, but to guide its recovery along with the multiple benefits that it confers to society (WECA, 2025). |
Climate change | Delivery of the West of England's Climate and Nature Strategy should be accelerated, recognising its importance for nature, people and business. For example, policy and planning decisions should favour nature-based solutions, particularly for flood and heat mitigation, in preference to engineered solutions (WECA, 2023). Both landscape and waterscape management can mitigate some emissions, while also enabling adaptation to climate change impacts. For emissions reduction data and solutions, see Bradley (2026). |
Invasive species | Invasive species are a major driver of environmental change, including driving biodiversity loss. Management of invasive non-native species (INNS) is already an increasingly important component of ecological stewardship in Bristol’s Floating Harbour and connected waterways. For example, to prevent the introduction and spread of aquatic invasive species, including zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha), killer shrimp (Dikerogammarus villosus) and invasive aquatic plants. This utilises the Bristol-led AQUA (Aquatic Quality Award) biosecurity accreditation scheme to promote monitoring, awareness raising, equipment wash-down, and the adoption of Defra’s ‘Check, Clean, Dry’ protocol across aquatic recreation sites, minimising the transfer of invasive organisms between water bodies (Bristol Zoological Society, 2024; Bristol Zoological Society, 2025). Promotion of improved biosecurity, coordinated regional monitoring and record-keeping, as well as rapid response systems to address invasive species can also contribute to the effective management of invasive species. This may involve funding catchment-based eradication and habitat restoration programmes, averting the proliferation of invasive species that undermine economic, biodiversity and other societal benefits. Biosecurity requirements can also be built into planning, procurement and construction processes. |
Conclusion
Maintaining and restoring nature in the West of England is strategically important to achieve greater resource security and enhance the region's economic prosperity.
A healthy natural environment provides a wide range of benefits, from the climate that underpins human productivity and public health, to the attractiveness of the region as a place to live, work and invest. The region has already shown strong leadership in supporting nature, but failure to account for the full range of benefits provided by natural assets in policy decisions could lead to unintended consequences.
Comprehensive assessments of policies are key not only for the restoration of nature, but also for economic resilience and prosperity. From food and fresh water, to maintaining landscapes and recreational activities, more comprehensive assessments in the region could lead to more sustainable models and practices.
References
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