Natural England

Natural England, formerly The Countryside Agency, government-funded advisory and promotional body that works to conserve and enhance the countryside. Natural England works with local government authorities, other public agencies, and landowners to provide funding and advice to conserve the natural environment and to promote social equity and economic opportunity for people who live in the countryside, as well as ensuring that the countryside is accessible to everyone, wherever they live. In addition to providing research and advice, it works by influencing others, especially central and local government, and demonstrates ways forward through practical projects. It has special responsibility for designating National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and defining Heritage Coasts, which are areas of scenic coastline that are managed to preserve their natural beauty as well as to improve accessibility for visitors. It also manages the Millennium Greens programme, which in 2001 completed its primary aim of creating 245 areas of open, green space to be enjoyed permanently by local communities across the country.

The Countryside Agency was formed in 1999 as a result of the merger of the Countryside Commission and the Rural Development Agency. The equivalent organization in Wales is the Countryside Council for Wales, in Scotland, Scottish National Heritage, and in Northern Ireland, the Environment and Heritage Service. As a result of the 2006 Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act, the Agency merged with English Nature, a public body set up to promote conservation, and the Rural Development Service, formerly part of the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), becoming Natural England in October that year.