Natural England Partnership and the Environment Agency

The Forestry Commission, the Natural England Partnership and the Environment Agency recognise the need to work closely together to deliver environmental outcomes and better customer service. Defra, in the Rural Strategy 2004 also gives a strong steer on the need for close collaboration between partners. A Memorandum of Understanding has been drawn up by the Natural England (NE) Partnership, the Environment Agency (EA) and the Forestry Commission (FC).

There are already many excellent examples of joint working across our organisations. This MoU provides a framework for our future relations, building on these existing partnerships. It defines our individual responsibilities, our shared priorities and how we will work together to best deliver these in line with our statutory purposes.

The MoU also identifies those areas where we need to work especially closely, but with clarity on our accountabilities. These are:

The Water Framework Directive
Integrated Catchment Management
Agriculture and Land Management Policy
Coastal and Fluvial Flood Risk Management
Water and Land Based Recreation; and
the Habitats Regulations

For these we are developing collaborative programmes. These programmes will be planned and developed by national and regional staff from each of the organisations, over the next three months. Implementation will cover the period prior to legal establishment of Natural England and also inform ongoing partnership working post vesting (planned for 1 October 2006 pending the enactment of the "NERC Bill").

Memorandum of Understanding (PDF:228k)