What is Biodiversity Net Gain?
Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is an approach that not only maintains biodiversity, but seeks to improve habitats following development projects. This is a constructive way to combat the negative impacts of land development projects. If you’re in charge of planning a project, you will need to factor in biodiversity net gain. The concept involves more than just replacing elements of the area, but enhancing the habitat and the overall biodiversity by 10%. The biodiversity is measured in a system of units, which are then applied to various projects to assess their environmental impacts.
Why is Biodiversity Gain important?
Biodiversity gain is important to restoring our natural world and this applies globally. By improving the state of our natural areas, we are encouraging:
● Production of raw materials
● Increased demand in agricultural industries
● Improving oxygen and water in our ecosystems
● Protecting a range of species
By doing this, projects that need to remove any of the natural area, will be compensating for this, with the 10% improvement on biodiversity units. In cases where projects can’t enhance on the site, off-site enhancement is still a viable option.
Instalments such as green roofs, walls and rain gardens are examples of how developments can be used to maintain the ecology of natural landscapes.
How will this impact me?
BNG is set to become mandatory during planning procedures from November 2023. For those who are seeking planning permission for certain sized projects, this will impact your development. If you’re planning a larger land development project, consultations may be more intense than that of smaller projects. Habitat creation and management plans should be something to consider if you are looking to start a substantial land development project. Ecological assessments will determine how easy the process of delivering BNG will be regarding your project.
Our services can help you demonstrate how your project will achieve biodiversity net gain. We are able to conduct assessments and calculate your baseline diversity score, working with our landscape design architects to determine their recommendations for your development.
Our role
Lizard Landscape Design and Ecology
Here at Lizard Landscape Design and Ecology we want to help your planning ideas come to life, whilst acknowledging the environmental impacts. The service we provide will be tailored to you personally and of the highest standard. We offer full time landscaping strategies and assessments to provide you with detailed planning submissions.
If this sounds like something you are interested in, our team will be happy to help you with any questions or queries that you have, so feel free to get in touch with us today.