REWILD THING: BUILDING BIODIVERSITY 'NET GAIN'

摘要

The new Environment Bill became law on 31 December and will oblige many construction projects to deliver a 10% 'biodiversity net gain'. It is a significant leap forward from the current situation, where developers only have to 'mitigate' the impact of their projects.This will affect any landowner seeking planning consent under the Town & Country Planning Act, for new build or refurbishment. In some cases, developers will be able to achieve the 10% biodiversity net gain on site. However, most projects will struggle to achieve this, believes Jon Davies, head of environmental consultant RSK Wilding."In practice many developers will need to pay to offset their impact on biodiversity," he says."One option is a reforestation or wetland creation elsewhere in the world. However, the biodiversity metric used by the Department of Environment, Fishing and Agriculture (DEFRA) values offsetting less the further it is from the source of the impact. That's partly to encourage UK biodiversity improvement following the prime minister's September commitment to ensure that 30% of land is protected for nature by 2030.