Guidance

Management plans for Protected Landscapes in England

Published 12 June 2025

Applies to England

‘Protected Landscapes’ refers to National Parks, the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads and National Landscapes in England.

A National Landscape is legally referred to as an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB).

Management plans for Protected Landscapes in England

The management plan covers the geographic area of the Protected Landscape, outlining the vision and strategy for conserving and enhancing its natural beauty, including wildlife and cultural heritage, and promoting opportunities for the public understanding and enjoyment of its special qualities.

Who this guidance is for

The management plans for Protected Landscapes are prepared, published, and reviewed by either the:

• National Park Authority
• The Broads Authority
• National Landscape Conservation Board
• National Landscape Partnership on behalf of local authorities with land in the National Landscape

Protected Landscapes duty

Relevant authorities under the Protected Landscapes duty should be guided by the management plan in seeking to further the purposes of a Protected Landscape.

Relevant authorities should make efforts to understand the management plan and relate their functions to it. Dialogue with the Protected Landscape team can assist the relevant authority.

Furthermore, relevant authorities should consider participating in the preparation, review and implementation of the management plan for a Protected Landscape.

Relevant authorities should also refer to the Protected Landscapes Targets and Outcomes Framework.

Preparing or reviewing a management plan

The management plan for a newly designated Protected Landscape must be published within:

• 3 years of the date of the designation for a National Park or National Landscape
• 2 years of the date of the designation for a National Landscape with a Conservation Board

The management plan for an existing Protected Landscape must be reviewed every 5 years (beginning on the date of its publication).

When preparing or reviewing a management plan, you should:

• bring partners and communities together, build relationships and grow commitment
• build consensus around a vision for the future and a strategy to get there
• coordinate and integrate other policies, plans and strategies, where these are relevant to the statutory purposes for which the Protected Landscape was designated
• establish a strategy around which joint action can happen

National Landscape Partnerships without Conservation Boards should co-create their management plans with local authorities, as it will be adopted by all local authorities as their policy in relation to the National Landscapes within their administrative boundary.

With the management plan in place, you should work in partnership with others to drive activity based on the plan you have co-prepared or co-reviewed together.

This guidance will take you through the steps to prepare or review a management plan. You may choose to complete the steps in a different order.

Step 1: Planning your project

You should establish a project plan that includes:

• a realistic timetable encompassing all required stages, methods, milestones, and key tasks
• responsibilities and roles
• a budget
• regular reviews of progress

To make best use of available time and resources, you should:

• integrate existing events and activities with your project plan
• use online tools for engagement, alongside any face-to-face engagement for specific groups or at events
• work with partners and other Protected Landscapes

You should be prepared for items of major spend, which might include:

• consultants
• research and data collection
• expenses for meetings, equipment, venue hire, and travel
• communications
• design and presentation costs

You could establish a steering group to guide the process that includes:

• officers and members of your governance structure
• representatives of a diverse range of partnership organisations

Scoping

If reviewing a plan, you should scope out the content and priorities at the beginning of the process. You may wish to consider:

• what in your current plan has worked well and should be retained
• how well were parts of the plan used by audiences and what can you learn from the user experience
• what has been overtaken by events and could be removed
• what policy and legislative changes need to be reflected
• what new drivers of change have emerged since the last plan was written
• what still needs doing that was either not fully addressed in the last plan cycle or is an ongoing issue

You could choose to look at other plans that have worked well and stimulated beneficial change in a Protected Landscape to see if they could helpfully be adapted to your circumstances.

Step 2: Notifying others

You should notify Natural England when you intend to prepare or review a management plan. Additionally:

• a National Landscape Conservation Board or National Park Authority should notify each local authority with land in the Protected Landscape
• the Broads Authority must notify each appointing authority, the internal drainage board for any district which is wholly or partly within the Broads, and bodies representing other relevant interests

You should consider notifying other principal stakeholders, informing them of:

• the process and timetable
• who will lead
• how stakeholders can expect to be involved

Step 3: Environmental and equality impact assessments

When preparing or reviewing a management plan for a Protected Landscape, you must complete certain assessments to comply with statutory requirements.

You may choose to undertake these assessments or engage a third party (a consultant or a partner organisation) to complete them on your behalf. They are best developed in tandem with the preparation or review of your management plan, rather than at the end.

Strategic environmental assessments

You must conduct a strategic environmental assessment when preparing or reviewing a management plan. Read the full guidance on strategic environmental assessments.

Habitat regulations assessment

You must conduct an assessment under the Habitat Regulations where the Protected Landscape contains European Protected Sites. These are:

• Special Areas of Conservation (SACs)
• Special Protection Areas (SPA)
• proposed SACs
• potential SPAs
• Ramsar wetlands of international importance (both listed and proposed)
• areas secured as sites compensating for damage to a European site

Read the full guidance on the Habitats Regulations.

Equality impact assessments

National Park Authorities and the Broads Authority must conduct an equality impact assessment of their management plans under the Public Sector Equality Duty.

National Landscape Conservation Boards may decide to complete an equality impact assessment of their management plan. Similarly, National Landscape Partnerships should have an early conversation with local authority partners to seek their views on completing an equality impact assessment for their management plan. 

Step 4: Climate adaptation management plans

You must produce a climate adaptation management plan by 2028, as required by the Third National Adaptation Programme. We recommend you carry this out simultaneously with the preparation or review of your management plan.

Your climate adaptation management plan should consider the impacts of climate change (such as managing the increased risk of wildfires) on all parts of the Protected Landscape, including nature, people, and place.

Step 5: Engaging stakeholders

You should begin stakeholder engagement in the early stages of the review. But you can continue engagement throughout, for example by organising specific workshops on emerging topics to agree the plan priorities.

Stages in the process that can be informed by stakeholders include:

• scoping
• gathering of evidence and identification of drivers of change
• review of the previous plan and its effectiveness
• identification of people’s aspirations and priority outcomes for the landscape
• developing options for plan vision and strategy

Your management plan should be developed through consensus building across a diverse range of stakeholders and the understanding of common goals. The engagement process will also raise awareness and promote wider ownership of your management plan’s outcomes.

Identifying your stakeholders

When preparing or reviewing a management plan you should:

• use the expertise of partners
• engage local people and visitors to understand their issues, priorities, values and aspirations for places, and their quality of life needs

You should spend time identifying your stakeholders. Stakeholders should have expertise or interest in emerging plan topics, but there is a need to ensure priorities are not missed because certain sectors and communities are not included.

Your stakeholders should include those relevant authorities – under the Protected Landscapes duty – most pertinent to your Protected Landscape. They may also include individuals and other organisations related to health, nature, landscape, access, tourism, heritage, rural economy, and land management.

A wide and diverse range of groups and individuals should be involved in preparing or reviewing a management plan in an inclusive and collaborative way. You should take positive action to involve underrepresented groups, encouraging genuine inclusion, and increasing the diversity of people engaging with Protected Landscapes.

Understanding stakeholder priorities

Once you have identified your stakeholders, it is essential to understand their priorities, particularly if they will have a partner role in delivery of your management plan.

When engaging stakeholders, you should try to understand:

• what they value about the landscape
• their aspirations for the landscape
• their views on the key issues and drivers of change and the problems to solve

Step 6: Monitoring conditions, gathering evidence and reporting

Your management plan should be underpinned by evidence on the current state of the Protected Landscape, forming the foundation for the vision and strategy.

Establishing condition indicators

Your management plan should be underpinned by a suite of indicators that measure the condition of the Protected Landscape.

Protected Landscape Targets and Outcomes Framework

Monitoring should align with the Protected Landscapes Targets and Outcomes Framework (PLTOF), which establishes a shared set of 10 targets and indicators for all Protected Landscapes, linked to the Environment Improvement Plan.

These targets and indicators cover some key aspects of nature, climate, heritage, and access, and the targets should be included within your management plan. Other national datasets are also included, providing additional information on the condition of the Protected Landscape’s environmental factors and socio-economic wellbeing. The targets do not represent the full scope of the statutory purposes of Protected Landscapes. 

Read the full guidance on Protected Landscapes Targets and Outcomes Framework.

Local indicators

You may also consider developing local, long-term indicators linked to the characteristics of natural beauty and special qualities of your Protected Landscape. You should consider:

• developing quantitative and qualitative indicators linked to the characteristics of your natural beauty and special qualities
• being mindful of data availability and ease of collection
• identifying proxy indicators for the health of the Protected Landscape
• seeking alignment with long-term outcomes and measures of success

Socio-economic indicators

National Landscape Conservation Boards, National Park Authorities, and the Broads Authority have a duty to seek to foster the social and economic well-being of communities in pursuing their statutory purposes

The extent to which National Landscapes without Conservation Boards address socio-economic concerns needs to be determined by the National Landscape Partnership in discussion with the local authorities with land in the National Landscape.

You could include socio-economic indicators to understand how the Protected Landscape supports local communities.

Data quality

Be transparent about data quality and limitations. Where data is incomplete, state this clearly and explain how you’ve addressed any gaps.

You may choose to collect primary data where existing information is insufficient, such as:

• fixed-point photography to track landscape change
• visitor or resident surveys for qualitative insights
• targeted monitoring of specific features or habitats

Spatial data

You may choose to present your monitoring data spatially where possible to show how conditions vary across the Protected Landscape. This approach can help:

• identify areas requiring special attention
• understand landscape-scale patterns and connections
• target resources more effectively
• communicate complex information visually

Evidence

Gathering evidence on the issues and challenges that your management plan should address is an essential part of the process.

For a review, you should work on changes over the 5 years under the previous management plan.

A strong evidence base will include information from a wide range of sources that together provide a holistic understanding of your Protected Landscape.

Landscape characterisation

Characterisation provides foundational information about character and condition, and can include:

• National Character Area profiles and their statements of environmental opportunity
• local landscape character assessments, including descriptions of issues, pressures, and management guidelines
• historic landscape character assessments
• seascape character assessments
• heritage appraisals

Policy and legislative context

Review the wider policy and legislative context that affects your Protected Landscape, such as:

• changes in relevant legislation and policies since your previous plan
• new or updated national strategies that may influence your approach
• regional and local plans that may have an impact on your Protected Landscape

You must comply with the biodiversity duty by having regard to any relevant strategies, including:

• local nature recovery strategies
• species conservation strategies
• protected site strategies

Where a strategy is being developed within or near a Protected Landscape, it will be essential to align policies to maximise consistency across planning frameworks, coordinate actions to address shared environmental pressures, and explore joint funding and delivery mechanisms.

Dialogue with the team preparing the strategy can assist with working together to implement coherent conservation and land management strategies.

Drivers of change

Identify the factors that are likely to drive change in your Protected Landscape, now and over the next 5 years, such as:

• environmental changes, including climate impacts
• social and economic shifts in surrounding communities
• technological developments that may influence land management
• changing recreational patterns and visitor pressures
• political and legislative changes that may affect management approaches

Producing a ‘state of the Protected Landscape’ report

You should consider producing a report that summarises the condition of the Protected Landscape and evidence gathered. This will establish a baseline of data for the condition and context of the Protected Landscape, allowing for an evaluation of change over time.

This report should:

• be produced at least every 5 years to align with management plan reviews
• present clear, evidence-based assessments across all characteristics of natural beauty and special qualities
• identify trends (improving, stable, or declining) for each indicator
• highlight important issues, challenges, and opportunities
• use a spatial approach to data presentation and graphics where beneficial

Step 7: Drafting the plan

You should bring together and analyse all the evidence you have gathered. This might include:

• considering the findings of your initial scoping exercise
• analysing the condition data by reviewing your ‘state of’ report to identify trends, areas of concern, and areas of improvement
• summarising the drivers of change by identifying environmental, social, economic, and policy factors influencing the Protected Landscape now and in the future
• distilling your stakeholders’ priorities by extracting important themes from your stakeholder engagement, identifying areas of consensus and potential tensions
• appraising your existing plan (for reviews) by evaluating how effectively the vision and strategy have addressed important issues

You must determine what your management plan needs to cover and in what depth. This will include:

• responding to the current condition of the Protected Landscape and any trends you have identified
• addressing important challenges and drivers of change
• reflecting stakeholder priorities and aspirations
• building on the strengths and lessons from previous plans (for reviews)
• aligning with national policy frameworks and statutory requirements

Components

Your management plan should comprise several core components, including:

• the title
• the role of the management plan and its audiences
• the ways of working
• the drivers of change in the Protected Landscape
• the characteristics of natural beauty, including wildlife, cultural heritage and special qualities of the Protected Landscape
• the vision for the Protected Landscape
• the strategy for the Protected Landscape

These core components can be ordered and presented in a way that suits you and your stakeholders. They can be presented consecutively within a single document, website, or webpage, or you may choose to split them up.

Title

Your management plan must have the appropriate title, which is:

• ‘[Name] National Landscape: An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Management Plan’ (for National Landscapes, including those with a Conservation Board)
• ‘[Name] National Park Management Plan’ (for National Parks)
• ‘The Broads Plan’ (for the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads)

Role of the management plan and its audiences

You should explain the purpose and importance of the management plan within the broader context of the Protected Landscape. You should:

• state that everyone has a role in delivering the plan
• emphasise the plan’s statutory basis and the statutory purposes of the Protected Landscape
• explain how the plan applies in and around the Protected Landscape (the ‘setting’)
• highlight the role of the plan for relevant authorities in complying with the Protected Landscapes duty
• identify any other audiences who will use the plan
• explain how the plan relates to other strategies, policies, and ambitions, such as the Environmental Improvement Plan, 30by30, and Local Nature Recovery Strategies
• review the successes and failures of the previous management plan (if there is one)

Ways of working

You might want to incorporate some ‘ways of working’ for the plan. These can be useful as threads which run through the thinking behind the plan, and which should inform delivery. They can aid understanding for the reader and encourage ways of working for the user.

An example might be not delivering one environmental benefit at the expense of another, such as tree planting on species-rich grassland.

Characteristics of natural beauty and special qualities of the Protected Landscape

You should describe the characteristics of natural beauty including wildlife and cultural heritage, and where appropriate, the special qualities to be promoted for understanding and enjoyment.

There is guidance on the designation and management of National Landscapes (AONBs) that may be useful when defining the characteristics of natural beauty and special qualities of your Protected Landscape.

Drivers of change

You should summarise the drivers of change and major issues for the Protected Landscape. This establishes part of the context for the vision and strategy of your management plan.

You may present the drivers of change and major issues as a standalone analysis within the strategy or where it relates to specific outcomes.

Vision for the Protected Landscape

You should establish a vision for the Protected Landscape, providing inspiration and direction for all stakeholders. It should emerge from the need to conserve and enhance what is special, distinctive and significant about the landscape and the need to address the drivers of change acting upon it.

A vision statement should:

• present an aspirational, place-specific and recognisable description of the future of the Protected Landscape in 20 to 50 years
• be concise, memorable, and inspirational, but detailed enough to articulate the Protected Landscape’s characteristics of natural beauty and special qualities
• be co-created with stakeholders to ensure broad ownership
• directly address major challenges and opportunities
• envision the pinnacle of achievement for the designation’s purposes
• remain stable across multiple plan cycles (evolving only when necessary)
• connect to wider environmental, social, and economic aspirations where these support the purpose of designation

Strategy for the Protected Landscape

The strategy translates your vision for the Protected Landscape into action for the duration of the management plan. Your strategy should be broken down into broad strategic priorities or themes.

Your strategic priorities should be structured around the:

• the purposes of the Protected Landscape and the duties of statutory bodies
• the characteristics of natural beauty including wildlife and cultural heritage, and where appropriate, the special qualities of the Protected Landscape

Additional cross-cutting priorities can also be defined through the data and evidence gathered (condition, issues, and drivers of change) and stakeholders’ priorities. These might include:

• access and recreation
• climate resilience and adaptation
• ecosystem services and benefits
• education and interpretation
• health and well-being
• heritage and culture
• inclusion
• landscape and seascape character
• nature recovery
• net zero and nature-based solutions
• planning and development
• rights of navigation
• soils
• sustainable communities
• sustainable economy
• sustainable tourism

While you must determine how to present your strategy, you should demonstrate a clear progression from your vision for the Protected Landscape, to the aims or outcomes for your strategic priorities, to the activities you or others could undertake to reach these outcomes, and to the targets or indicators by which you will monitor your progress towards these outcomes.

You should use a framework and terminology suitable for your strategic context. You may describe ambitions using either ‘aims’ (aspirational) or ‘outcomes’ (desired end states) and may define progress using ‘targets’ (quantitative goals) or ‘indicators’ (evidence of direction of travel).

When developing your strategy, you may wish to define the role and responsibility of partners in the delivery of aims and outcomes. This will help to illustrate how everyone has a role in the plan’s delivery.

Although your plan is for a 5-year period, some activity may stretch beyond this plan cycle. You may therefore include outcomes or aims that go beyond 5 years, but your target-setting should allow you to articulate progress made within the 5-year lifespan of the plan. 

Delivery plan

You may choose to include a delivery plan in your management plan (or as a separate document). A delivery plan transforms your strategy into steps with clear responsibilities, a timeframe, and resource requirements directed towards your desired outcomes.

Step 8: Consultation

Effective consultation is critical to developing a management plan that has broad support and ownership across stakeholders, communities and statutory bodies.

You should establish an approach for consultation that considers the local context and diverse community you want to involve in the process. Your consultation should be open for 6 to 12 weeks.

You must allow the statutory consultees appropriate time for comment on your draft plan. This means:

• National Landscapes (including those with Conservation Boards) must consult with local authorities whose area is wholly or partly within their designation
• National Parks must consult with principal and parish councils within their designation
• the Broads Authority must consult each appointing authority, the internal drainage board for any district which is wholly or partly within the Broads, and bodies representing other relevant interests

You should attempt to reach people who may be disinclined to engage, by:

• working with support groups and charities serving underrepresented groups
• engaging youth groups and programmes
• using local authority channels
• conducting face-to-face meetings and focus groups
• targeting social media campaigns to specific demographics

Once your consultation has closed, you should decide the extent to which you will modify the plan to meet the issues raised. You may choose to communicate this within a consultation report.

National Landscape Partnerships must also send the draft plan with any proposed amendments to Natural England for formal observations after the public consultation.

Step 9: Adoption

Once your management plan is complete, it must be adopted in:

• National Parks and the Broads, at a meeting of the full authority
• National Landscapes with Conservation Boards, at a full meeting of the Board
• National Landscapes, through a process determined by the local authorities

You must submit a copy of the management plan to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs after it has been formally adopted.

Step 10: Presentation

Once your management plan is adopted, you must publish it, making it publicly available and promoting it to partners and the community.

You should decide the best order and presentation of your management plan for your context and stakeholders. You may choose to fully integrate the management plan with your website. This approach puts your vision and strategy at the heart of the website, with supporting evidence and context easily accessible. You may also choose to print the management plan.

You must ensure ease of access for all. There is clear guidance for accessibility in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

You should consider alternative presentation formats. The UK Association for Accessible Formats (UKAAF) has a clear set of standards for accessibility for both web and print on its website.