Northumberland National Park – One of Britain’s Breathing Spaces

Northumberland National Park cares for the landscape and cultural heritage of 405 square miles (105,000 hectares) – over a fifth of Northumberland from Hadrian’s Wall to the Scottish border. A regional treasure for the North East, some six million people are within an hour’s drive of our wide open and sparsely populated upland spaces.

With the help of our dedicated volunteers we look after more than 1100 kilometres of Rights of Way – including two national trails and a number of long distance walking, cycling and horse riding trails, and the central, most visited section of Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site. 32 Sites of Special Scientific Interest covering over 10,000 hectares, one Ramsar Site; three National Nature Reserves and 6 Special Areas of Conservation fall within the boundary of the National Park.

Our work includes protecting the landscape from inappropriate development and maintaining the infrastructure that helps people to have access to the countryside. We conserve natural and historical features that are tourist assets to the local and regional economy; support the local community and businesses with advice, expertise and grant funding, and help to promote the area to visitors. In all these endeavours we put the interests of the community first.

Northumberland National Park is committed to sustainable living and working and has taken a strong position on climate change. As part of our positive action we have invested with partners in a large programme to restore the Border Mires – – habitats that are important for carbon storage and flood alleviation. We are working with farmers and landowners to maintain healthy soils, landscapes and habitats; supporting sustainable enterprises and transport, promoting the Green Tourism Business Scheme in our region and encouraging domestic and community-scale renewable energy. We are also firmly committed to reducing our own carbon footprint by 2012. To this end we have developed an ethical procurement policy and are adapting our buildings and practices to be increasingly sustainable.