Achieving Lasting Biodiversity Net Gains by Integrating Social Considerations
The statutory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) legislation came into effect in February 2024, representing an unprecedented shift in the way England values and manages its land and habitats. Developers must now replace what biodiversity they lose through construction on-site and enhance it by 10%. You can do this by either making improvements to the habitats on-site, or you can purchase ‘biodiversity units’ being generated elsewhere in the country by environmental organisations like Groundwork.
BNG has been called “the most ambitious biodiversity policy in the world” by experts, and although this is an extremely exciting time to be entering the world of biodiversity enhancement, BNG remains an imperfect mechanism for achieving the highest standard for nature conservation and social justice.
Maximising Community Integration. For Places that People Love
Often, the values of local residents are not taken into consideration when habitat projects are designed, meaning that the benefits of habitat creation are not sufficiently aligned or understood by those who are most affected by these changes to their environment.
This often leads to conflict and can lead to vandalism, putting habitat projects at risk. Other times, habitat and species choices aren’t matched to the correct local conditions, leading to what look like successes in the short-term, but are actually failures in the long-term.
Accessibility is also another major consideration- too much access and nature can’t find its rooting to thrive, but too little access means that many of the benefits to people, be it educational, psychological, recreational, physical, or spiritual, are lost.
Although the BNG legislation is a major step in the right direction, it is still in its infancy and is experiencing some growing pains.
Consultancies will utilise standardised habitat project templates to increase efficiency, resulting in uniform and often unsuitable habitat and planting choices, where there should really be diversity and resilience. Confusion remains over how social considerations are best balanced alongside biodiversity enhancements, leading to some sites being totally inaccessible to the people.
Including Social Considerations Within Biodiversity Net Gains Planning
Ideally, and this is where Groundwork comes in, we should be integrating community needs from the get-go, at the drafting stage.
Years of experience working in communities and for community greenspaces, through workshopping, volunteer days, training programmes, and more, means that we can tap into that essential flow of knowledge, desire and values, to create equitable habitat enhancements.
Site management also presents a good opportunity to bring communities into the mix to get stuck in, letting people and nature intertwine.
The ‘Green Team’ programme, for example, takes habitat management as an opportunity for young people to gain skills suitable for getting into the growing green economy, under the supervision of a trained expert.
How Groundwork London Supports Developers and Landowners with BNG
- In the initial phase of appraising suitable land, we help determine the best places for habitat enhancement with the highest positive impact
- We run habitat baseline survey done to figure out what’s already on-site and what could be possible in the future, leading to the blueprint for the Habitat Management and Monitoring Plan
- We can also help you draft the plan, with the aid of trained ecologist, with a full range of recommended management strategies and monitoring options suitable to budget, as well as contingency plans to ensure there’s always a safety net
- We can help you get your project over the finishing line by guiding you through the verification, registration and advertising process, and finally
- The aforementioned management and monitoring over the minimum 30-year project length.
It’s time to let us guide you into a world where your nature dreams can become reality. All you need is a little Groundwork magic to help the flowers grow along the way.