As a tool to aid thinking and stimulate new ideas about the future, a set of scenarios – stories setting out a range of possible pictures of the future – that are plausible and represent the breadth of possible circumstances have been developed.
The scenarios will help Natural England build a robust perspective on the long-term challenges to the natural environment. In addition to underpinning the creation of a clear integrated vision for the natural environment to 2060, the scenarios will be used to inform and test its strategies and polices.
The scenarios set out a range of paths along which terrestrial and marine environments could develop, including implications on how we might live in 2060. This report is an initial assessment of how we think the next fifty years might unfold in relation to England’s natural environment. It provides a starting point for exploring the implications of how life in life in 2060 might affect biodiversity, landscape and people’s engagement with the natural environment.