The aim of the Strategy is to:
Conserve, enhance and promote our countryside for the benefit of people and wildlife.
The Strategy sets out priorities for action for the Council and its partners. It focuses on practical measures to conserve and enhance the countryside. It also seeks to create opportunities for people to enjoy and become involved in caring for the countryside.
Sixty percent of Gateshead is rural in character and much of this is an attractive mixture of farmland and woodland - the Borough contains two thirds of the woodland in Tyne and Wear. This countryside resource is rich in wildlife - including regionally significant populations of notable species, such as otter.