East Anglian Planning and Biodiversity Webinar Thursday 11th February 2021
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES and PRESENTATION SUMMARIES
Biodiversity Net Gain Update for the East Anglian Planning and Biodiversity Webinar Dr Nick White, Principal Advisor, Natural England Biography Nick has worked across Government (national and local), and with developers, NGOs and academia to advance policy, practice and standards around net gain (biodiversity, natural capital and environmental). The current focus of Nick’s work is on biodiversity net gain legislation, the biodiversity metric and biodiversity net gain standards and guidance. Nick is also working on the evolving approach to marine net gain. As a non-ecologist Nick is interested in how biodiversity
and the natural environment can contribute towards wider social and economic benefits. Nick also has a strong interest in green infrastructure, especially in relation to urban areas and its ability to enhance wider (grey) infrastructure resilience. Nick enjoys engaging with different sectors and seeking opportunities to help secure the delivery of shared outcomes.
Presentation Nick’s presentation will serve as a broad introduction to current and future developments relating to biodiversity net gain. It will encompass existing national policy and guidance relating to biodiversity net gain, but will focus principally on the forthcoming mandatory biodiversity net gain requirements as set out in the Environment Bill. It will also highlight some additional related requirements within the Bill, namely Local Nature Recovery Strategies and Conservation Covenants. Biodiversity net gain (both mandatory and non-mandatory) is predicated in part on the use of a biodiversity metric. The presentation will introduce the forthcoming Biodiversity Metric 3.0 – the metric for use will become a legal requirement under mandatory biodiversity net gain but which also has wider potential applications. The presentation will then go on to look at what is happening outside of the Bill with respect to biodiversity net gain and NSIPs and highlight some of the early work now underway on marine net gain. Lastly, it will highlight the work underway to move beyond biodiversity net gain to environmental net gain.
A developer’s perspective on Biodiversity Net Gain Dr Julia Baker, Biodiversity Technical Specialist, Balfour Beatty Biography Dr Julia Baker is a Biodiversity Technical Specialist at Balfour Beatty, which is one of the largest contractors in the UK. Julia is the lead author on the UK’s Good Practice Principle for
Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), and has designed and implemented BNG on a variety of developments from small to large scale, from urban to rural. Julia currently runs professional training courses on BNG and is on Natural England’s Sounding Board for the revision of Biodiversity Metric 2.0. Presentation The presentation will give insights and practical advice about achieving Biodiversity Net Gain on development projects. This will include design innovations to apply the mitigation hierarchy, key
pointers to maximise benefits of the biodiversity metric without losing sight of the complexities of the natural environment, and pitfalls to avoid. The presentation will also highlight a new study on links between Biodiversity Net Gain and people’s wellbeing.
Applying Net Gain in Greater Manchester Krista Patrick, Natural Capital Coordinator, Greater Manchester Environment Team Biography Krista has over 20-years’ experience of working as an environmental planner in the public, private and community sectors and joined the Greater Manchester Combined Authority as Natural Capital Coordinator in 2016. In this role, Krista provides strategic support on delivering a natural capital approach as part of the Natural Course EU LIFE Integrated Project, Greater Manchester Urban Pioneer Project and the Greater Manchester Natural Capital Group. Current
projects include designing an Environment Fund for Greater Manchester, to get more funding into the natural environment; delivering biodiversity net gain, supporting planning policies set out in the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework as well as a communications campaign to promote the work being delivered across Greater Manchester to manage the natural environment. Presentation The Greater Manchester Combined Authority, in partnership with the 10 local planning authorities, Natural England and other partners, has been developing a Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) delivery model since
2018. This has the aim of putting Greater Manchester in a strong position and ensuring it is well-prepared to implement BNG once it becomes mandatory. Krista Patrick, Natural Capital Coordinator at GMCA will provide an overview of Greater Manchester’s strategic plans for recovering nature including the new LNRS pilot as well as the Greater Manchester Environment Fund as well as practicalities of delivering BNG.
Biodiversity Net Gain from a Wildlife Trust perspective Dr Rachel Giles, Evidence and Planning Manager, Cheshire Wildlife Trust Biography Rachel is the Evidence and Planning Manager at the Cheshire Wildlife Trust where she has been in post for over 10 years after having been an independent ecologist. She has also worked as a research scientist for both Manchester University and Astra Zeneca. She currently works on a variety of projects from planning, policy and ecological network mapping to overseeing the Local Wildlife Site system in Cheshire. She was
instrumental in helping shape the great crested newt District Level Licencing system and enabling the initial rollout in Cheshire. Rachel’s particular area of interest is biodiversity net gain and she has provided support to Highways England, Local Planning Authorities and represented the Wildlife Trusts on BNG focus groups including for the Small Sites metric. She regularly reviews BNG reports on behalf of councils and also arranges offsite habitat provision. She is a member of the Ecology Review Group for HS2 where her focus is the HS2 no net loss metric and she has appeared twice at the HS2 House of Commons Select Committee to
highlight related issues. Recently she has become a trainer for the CIEEM Biodiversity Metric course. Presentation For over 50 years the Wildlife Trusts have been highlighting the unfolding wildlife catastrophe. Through our work, and that of other organisations, there have been some notable successes but the trend is still moving in the wrong direction. In 2019 the State of Nature report identified that 13% of species in Great Britain are currently threatened with extinction, mainly due to the loss and degradation of habitats. With climate change set to exacerbate these losses several forward thinking councils across the country have now declared a joint ‘Climate and Ecological emergency’. For the first time across the board there seems to be a real willing to address the core issues and the concept of Biodiversity Net Gain is at the heart of this. Although put forward as a planning tool BNG is so much more than this. For the Wildlife Trusts it is not about achieving positive numbers in a metric output, but adhering to the BNG good practice principles that will bring about real change. This talk will explore how and why the Wildlife Trusts are engaging with BNG and why this changes everything from the way we engage with developers, planners and the planning system to the work we are doing on the ground to create and restore habitats and help wildlife recover. It will also explore some of the issues we’ve encountered through this engagement.
Using Biodiversity Net Gain to drive landscape scale change Mike Edwards, Business Manager, Norfolk Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group (Norfolk FWAG) and Glenn Anderson, Managing Partner of Dillington Hall Estate
Biographies Mike Edwards, Business Manager, Norfolk Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group Mike has over 20 years’ experience of nature conservation work within Norfolk. He started his career on a mid-Norfolk farm undertaking practical conservation work, before joining a local environmental consultancy where he worked on agri-
environment applications for landowners and NGO’s. In 2010 Mike moved to Natural England to work on agri-environment schemes before becoming a Team leader responsible for overseeing agri-environment and SSSI’s in Norfolk. Mike has also worked for the The Land Trust where he worked with house builders and developers to bring new public open spaces into sustainable management. Mike joined Norfolk FWAG (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group) in 2018 as Business Manager and is responsible for the growth and development of the charity which advises its farmer members on all aspects of conservation and regenerative farming. Glenn Anderson, Managing Partner of Dillington Hall Estate Glenn has been in farming all his life having grown up on a livestock farm in Cambridgeshire. He moved to Norfolk in 1999 to manage Dillington Hall Estate and has over 20 years’ experience in farm conservation through various agrienvironment and woodland schemes. For some time now he has been looking for an opportunity to deliver a much more meaningful contribution to nature on a much bigger scale. Glenn is a director and trustee of Norfolk FWAG and also works as a consultant advising global blue-chip organisations on real-estate strategy (and more recently on Covid resilience planning). He is passionate about the contribution UK farming could play in helping to combat climate change, reverse biodiversity loss and the potential to deliver social impact and wellbeing through public access and education.
Presentation Glenn and Mike will deliver an overview of the Wendling Beck Exemplar Partnership (WBEP) project. The project is a collaboration of 6 landowners, Norfolk FWAG, Norfolk Rivers Trust, Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Norfolk County Council and Anglian Water. It is supported by The Nature Conservancy and Natural England and has evolved to become a multi-faceted Natural Capital project underpinned by emerging Biodiversity Net Gain policy. It is also one of the 9 Natural England Biodiversity Net Gain Credit Scheme Pilots in the UK. The project is focussed around the catchment of the Wendling Beck river, just North of Dereham with a project area of just under 2000 acres. Whilst it is still in the planning phase, it has become a story of habitat creation, nature restoration, social impact and regenerative agriculture at a landscape scale.
It is a brilliant example of teamwork and collaboration between catchment operators and demonstrates what can be achieved when neighbouring landowners and key stakeholders work together with shared vision and ambition.