Doughnut in the Shropshire Hills Plan

The ideas of Doughnut Economics have been adopted in the Shropshire Hills National Landscape 2025–30 Management Plan ‘Thriving in Balance with Nature’.  Rather than treating environmental, social and economic issues separately, the Doughnut model provides a way of looking at them together and asking how can we meet people's needs while remaining within ecological limits?

The Doughnut model is useful in a protected landscape because of its holistic scope and ability to stimulate conversations about what genuine progress looks like. The approach aligns naturally with the role of protected landscapes, which are already concerned with long-term stewardship, health of the environment and public wellbeing rather than growth at all costs.

The ideas have been applied in several ways. They have influenced the Vision of the new Management Plan, helped shape a basic data portrait of the Shropshire Hills, and informed participatory workshops with local people and stakeholders towards a community portrait. Together these tools help bring ecological and social issues into a single picture and encourage discussion about priorities and opportunities for change.

This work is still developing and a key challenge we are exploring is making it accessible and practical in order to appeal to more people, while not ‘watering down’ the deeper aspects of the Doughnut Economics thinking.  See the pdf here for further detail.