Skilling up BNG professionals for maximum impact

Opportunity

Mandatory biodiversity net gain (BNG) in England requires developers to follow the 'mitigation hierachy' and increase a site's biodiversity value by at least 10%. BNG is achieved by creating and enhancing wildlife-rich habitats, with the 10% figure measured in 'habitat units' by the government's biodiversity metric. The requirement represents a significant shift for infrastructure development, from developers only being required to mitigate impacts on biodiversity to supporting its recovery and enhancement.

With the introduction of mandatory BNG, we recognised the need to support ecologists to up-skill in habitat design. Our proposal to develop and run a training course on habitat design for BNG was accepted by the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM), the leading professional membership body representing ecologists and environmental managers in the UK and Ireland.

Solution

Our BNG Habitats Design Checklist training provides a practical, step-by-step approach to the key considerations for BNG-led designs for habitat creation and enhancement. The course aligns with the ecological impact assessment process of identifying, quantifying and evaluating potential effects of development-related to deliver impact mitigation or compensation, and for achieving BNG through like-for-like or better.

The course, delivered by our experts, provides an essential structure, consistency and standardisation so that biodiversity metrics are used appropriately, and metric calculations are based on high-quality habitat designs. Through the course, we demonstrate how 'numbers on a spreadsheet' translate into biodiverse habitat designs on the ground. We also highlight the importance of a collaborative design approach that involves landscape architects, among others.

Outcome

Our new professional training course on our BNG Habitat Design Checklist is based on our leading expertise in both biodiversity metric calculations and designing wildlife-rich habitats for BNG.