View of houses across agricultural land
Biodiversity Net Gain in local communities
What is Biodiversity Net Gain?
Biodiversity net gain is a method that helps improve biodiversity by creating or enhancing habitats during development. It can be achieved on-site, off-site, or through a combination of both.
Biodiversity net gain is now a legal requirement under the Environment Act 2021, which mandates a 10% increase in biodiversity for most developments. This increase is measured using the Biodiversity Metric, a calculator tool developed by Natural England specifically for this purpose.
Biodiversity net gain is an important tool in achieving the government's goals of nature recovery and protecting 30% of the UK's land and sea by 2030. Its aim is to leave the environment in a better state than before the development.
Developer requirements under Biodiversity Net Gain
Under the new Environment Act 2021, all planning permissions in England (with a few exceptions) must ensure a minimum of 10% biodiversity net gain (BNG). Kent Wildlife Trust, in collaboration with the Kent Nature Partnership, is advocating for Districts in Kent to adopt policies that exceed this requirement and achieve a secure 20% BNG.
To achieve BNG, developers need to implement various measures, such as creating new habitats or enhancing existing ones either on or offsite. These gains must be legally secured for a minimum of 30 years through an agreement. Offsite BNG allows landowners to offer their land for habitat creation or enhancement, with funding linked to specific habitat improvements.
The key principle of delivering BNG is the mitigation hierarchy, which prioritises avoiding impacts to wildlife, followed by mitigation measures, and only as a last resort, compensating for any losses. It is important to clarify that BNG is not solely a means to facilitate development by allowing habitat destruction in one area and compensating for it elsewhere. BNG is an additional requirement that does not replace existing obligations to protect wildlife and enhance habitats for protected species. When implemented effectively, BNG provides a significant opportunity for the sector to address the ecological emergency and create a positive legacy for both people and wildlife.
Driving Local Nature Recovery
Clear and ambitious policies within Local Development Plans are essential for ensuring good high quality BNG. These plans serve as a framework for development in the local area and offer an opportunity for Districts to outline how BNG can contribute to local nature recovery. Kent Wildlife Trust has been advocating for a 20% BNG commitment throughout Kent and is pleased to see many local authorities in Kent are now considering including this policy in their draft Local Plans. However, it is important for them to provide evidence that justifies the higher target and demonstrate that it is feasible and achievable within the local area.
Frequently Asked Questions for Communities
How could BNG benefit wildlife in Kent?
Kent Wildlife Trust Group (KWTG)’s strategy sees BNG as a key mechanism to fund nature restoration and to be used as strategically as possible – e.g. linked to making the Local Nature Recovery Network (LNRN) something real and effective on-the-ground as a major component of delivering on the UK’s 30x30 international biodiversity commitment 10.
To restore nature at scale society needs to Protect; Restore; and Fund. Biodiversity Net Gain can play a part at all 3 levels. It should work for wildlife. We have a duty to make sure it does now that it’s here. Kent Wildlife Trust will work to make sure it has the maximum possible positive impact and will only work with those who have the right approach.
Why is Kent Wildlife Trust working with developers?
We believe that you have to work with people to influence change so we want to encourage developers and local authorities to implement best practise processes and to embrace and prioritise nature as part of their plans. The mandatory requirement for biodiversity net gain we hope will support delivery of existing planning policy, creates a level playing field for developers and makes it easier to implement a consistent national approach to net gain. Whilst we support the mandatory approach to biodiversity net gain, there are some important principles that must be applied. These include...
- Robust and transparent due diligence: All new BNG partners will go through a robust due diligence process to ensure that nature is not being negatively impacted through other projects and that the organisations we work with are already on the way towards net zero with a focus on driving sustainability best practise.
- Mitigation hierarchy: We believe that net gain must be additional to the hierarchy and come into play only once the impacts of development on biodiversity have been avoided, mitigated and compensated. If a given developer doesn’t systematically look at how they can avoid impacts (including, critically, off-site ones like pollution, and their contribution to cumulative ones e.g. human disturbance to nearby wildlife sites); minimise those that they cannot avoid; and then restore as much of said damage as possible within the footprint of the development, prior to looking at what they need to do elsewhere through offsetting, then it probably won’t result in a net gain at all. Therefore, success depends on how BNG is interpreted and applied by a whole suite of people from developers to ecological consultants, local government and statutory bodies.
- In perpetuity: All mitigation, compensation and biodiversity gain delivered through the scheme should be permanent and not lost at a later stage. This will require effective and adequate investment, management, monitoring and enforcement.
What are the key due diligence requirements that Kent Wildlife Trust have in place?
Kent Wildlife Trust will openly and transparently follow our defined principles and publish on our website the process we have followed to calculate the biodiversity uplift that it is selling from its Estate and how this meets genuine additionality concerns as well as evidencing our due diligence on buyers of Biodiversity Units.
The below demonstrates our current checklist, that will be further finessed over the coming month/s (matching to the launch of mandatory BNG in January 2024) and will be updated and re-published on our website.
- The Kent Wildlife Trust Planning and Policy team has conducted a general due diligence check of the purchaser/user of the Biodiversity Units.
- The core business of the purchaser/user of any Biodiversity Units provided by Kent Wildlife Trust is not in direct conflict with the Trust’s operations, values or objectives (e.g., fossil fuel abstraction; funds from developers/developments with poor ethical and sustainability standards/existing poor relations with the Trust and/or local community).
- The development linked to the use of Biodiversity Units provided by Kent Wildlife Trust is not one we have previously objected to.
- The planning application, the criteria for planning approval, the location and nature of the biodiversity gain and the development’s Biodiversity Metric has been reviewed to ensure like-for like loss and delivery.
- Kent Wildlife Trust is satisfied with the procedure used to ascertain the pre-development baseline, i.e., ensure a through site-based assessment of the habitat type & condition of the environment prior to the development has been undertaken to the required standards and is provided to KWT for review.
- Kent Wildlife Trust is satisfied the site has not been deliberately damaged ahead of the pre-development baseline. If at all uncertain, the precautionary principle should apply.
