Establishing an ecological network across the National Park will help sustain wildlife populations into the future. It will ensure that habitats and species are more resilient to climate change and human pressures – increasing connectivity and functionality – and will reduce conflicts between land uses as we seek to make optimum use of land in the National Park.

Projects that work at a wider landscape scale deliver benefits over large areas and require new ways of working between multiple land managers, owners, agencies and anyone else with an interest in land. It is essential that woodland, moorland, farmland and other land uses in the National Park are managed in collaboration with one another to benefit nature.

A revisited set of designated sites across the National Park should form the backbone of an ecological network and be at the centre of coordinated action across wider countryside management.