The Broads

Areas of Particular Importance for Biodiversity map

14 November 2024

An aerial view of a winding river landscape featuring wetlands, grassy fields, and patches of woodland. The river meanders through lush green pastures, separated by narrow ditches and natural embankments. On the right, a large body of water occupies much of the area, with dense vegetation lining its banks. Sparse clusters of bare trees are scattered across the land, indicating late autumn or early winter. The surrounding countryside extends into the horizon, with distant farmland and small settlements visible in the background.

A view of a large and impressive yellow and black coloured swallowtail butterfly perched feeding on the purple flower head of a thistle. The focus of the image is on the feeding butterfly, but there are multiple purple flower heads that you can see in the frame and an expanse of green vegetation in the background.

An aerial view of a vast wetland landscape under an overcast sky. The scene shows winding waterways, brownish-gold vegetation and reeds, covering much of the area. A series of narrow rivers meander through the landscape, bordered by golden reeds grassy embankments. Several ponds are scattered across the wetland, reflecting the cloudy sky. Sparse trees and shrubs are dotted throughout the area, and in the distance, green fields and woodlands border the wetlands.

Peatland

The Broads holds a significant area of the UKs lowland deep peat deposits, little other peatland is found in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Peat covers about 35% of the Broads National Park, storing vast amounts of carbon. However, nearly a quarter of these deep peat soils are drained for agriculture, releasing greenhouse gases. Over the past 40 years, around one million tonnes of carbon have been lost. Through government-funded Nature for Climate projects we've helped farmers and land managers address barriers to peatland restoration. Managing raised water tables in peat benefits both the climate and nature recovery.

Beyond the Broads

The work of Broads partners forms part of the wider Local Nature Recovery Strategies of both Norfolk and Suffolk. The main purpose of these wider strategies is to identify locations to create or improve habitat most likely to provide the greatest benefit for nature and the environment.

Norfolk Local Nature Recovery Strategy

Suffolk Local Nature Recovery Strategy

What's next?

We consider that the whole of the Broads has potential to become an area of particular importance for biodiversity. Opportunity mapping identifies the Broads as a priority location where restoring, expanding, and connecting existing habitat or creating new habitat will benefit biodiversity and the wider environment.

This information will feed into the development of an ecological network across the country, as part of the Local Nature Recovery Strategies where habitats that support biodiversity are more numerous, bigger, better, and more joined up.

View the Broads APIB Map

Follow the link below to explore the full interactive Areas of Particular Importance for Biodiversity map:

Broads APIB (arcgis.com)