Speaker:

Richard Leafe
Chief Executive
Lake District National Park Authority
Website: www.lakedistrict.gov.uk
Twitter @lakeschief

Biography:

Richard joined the Lake District National Park Authority as Chief Executive in June 2007. Previously he was Regional Director in the North West for Natural England, a role he took up in October 2006. Richard worked for one of Natural England’s predecessors, English Nature, for 15 years.

Richard is a Geography graduate from Sheffield University where he also gained an MPhil in Coastal Geomorphology. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, away from work Richard is a keen climber, runner, cyclist and skier. From September 2012 Richard became a Board Member for the Environment Agency.

Synopsis of Presentation:

The Lake District National Park has a long proud history over millennia of being managed by people to deliver what the society needs at the time. Society’s demands and human management and in turn the landscape have continued to change over time. This “cultural landscape” is the key aspect of the Lake District’s bid for World Heritage Inscription as the UK nomination to UNESCO in 2016. The Lake District National Park landscape continues to deliver a wide range of high quality ecosystem services for society, but we need to sustain these into the future through sustainable economies and communities and in the face of climate change and other pressures.

Continuous Cover Forestry has a significant role to play in the National Park to help protect and enhance the special qualities of the National Park and the potential World Heritage Site, contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation and deliver the wide range of high quality ecosystem services that society demands now and in the future. The Lake District National Park Authority with a huge coalition of communities, businesses and partner organisations are working together to plan and deliver this sustainable future.

Conference Resource:

• We regret that we do not have a PDF / video of this talk.

Websites and References:

1. www.lakedistrict.gov.uk – Homepage for Lake District National Park Authority
2. www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/caringfor/partnership – Lake District National Park Partnership and Management Plan
3. www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/caringfor/projects/lowcarbonlakedistrict – Low Carbon Lake District programme: Climate Change mitigation and adaptation