Natural England

Landscape

We are responsible for designating England's finest countryside as National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty for the benefit of future generations. We encourage sustainable land management to enable land managers to deliver environmental and economic benefits for all to enjoy. We work to ensure positive planning for rural areas, promoting development that respects the character of all landscapes and meets the needs of local communities.

Our countryside character initiative is a tool to improve understanding of the countryside and it is helping us to develop a vision for the future of England's landscapes to help manage change sustainably.  Our work is split into the following areas:

• Countryside Around Towns - The countryside in and around our towns and cities, the rural urban fringe, is the area of countryside closest to where most people live.  It is a place where rural and urban influences meet and mingle to create a distinctive and dynamic landscape.  It could be managed and used to improve the everyday lives and prospects of millions of people, and yet is too often neglected by policy makers, planners and others.
• Designated Landscapes - England's finest countryside is so important that it is marked out for special protection and management as National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Our aim is to foster first-class management in these protected landscapes, as well as in tax exempt heritage landscapes.
• Sustainable Land Management - our aim is to secure a prosperous land based sector which retains the primary responsibility for creating and maintaining the varied character which is the essence of the English countryside, whilst meeting the needs of farmers and land managers, businesses and local communities.  
• Planning -  we can respond effectively to the challenges the countryside faces if ambitious planning policies are set within a positive vision for the future. Our work has a clear aim of establishing the principles and tools necessary for the planning system to deliver sustainable development in the countryside.
• Landscape Character and Policy - landscape reflects the relationship between people and place. It is the setting for our lives. Landscape Character Assessment is a technique for helping us to understand what gives the landscape its character.