How can we deliver effective, equitable and place-based environmental governance?

Governance challenges are at the heart of delivering sustainability commitments, including the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the 23 targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and the Paris Agreement’s 1.5° C climate target. These ambitious goals have profound implications for land and resource use, shaping housing, food, timber, water, energy, climate action, nature recovery, and recreation. However, equitably achieving these goals requires navigating trade-offs and conflicts across scales.

There is growing interest in the potential of ‘place-based’ governance to incorporate diverse stakeholder perspectives, foster cross-sector collaboration, and develop contextually appropriate solutions. Despite their widespread adoption and potential, many uncertainties remain about how place-based approaches function in practice and how they can be improved.

This Sprint aims to bridge these gaps, offering insights to strengthen environmental governance and support both national and global sustainability targets. The research will use a mixed methods approach to understand how and whether Area Statements are currently working, both at a national level and in a number of case study areas. We will build on this to develop and share an evidence-informed roadmap for enhancing the effectiveness of environmental governance.

Why this Sprint? Why now?

We are partnering with Natural Resources Wales and focussing on Welsh Area Statements (AS). These regional, place-based plans are mandated by legislation, including the Well-being of Future Generations Act, the Environment Act, and the Planning Act and were developed by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) through participatory engagement with local communities. Whilst these statements outline key priorities and challenges for each area, there are concerns that AS have failed to fulfil their potential and face persistent implementation and delivery gaps, underscoring the need for deeper analysis and actionable improvements.

This Sprint aims to produce research that equips key actors associated with Area Statements – including NRW staff, end users, and Welsh Government leaders – to engage meaningfully with the area statement process. The goal is to ensure that Area Statements are effectively integrated in the new Natural Resources Policy, and able to be meaningfully implemented on the ground, addressing persistent delivery challenges. We anticipate the research will produce learnings of relevance of environmental governance across the UK and beyond.