What's new?

Animals play a vital role in our ecosystems, making life on Earth possible for humans. Safeguarding species is crucial for our health and the future of the planet, yet so many are under threat, with habitat loss and overexploitation threatening biodiversity

In its Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill (LURB), the government puts huge emphasis on its commitment to ensuring that town and country planning regimes contribute to addressing the issues of protecting the environment and tackling climate change.

When planning a new development of any size, one of the first considerations should be the impact your project will have on the local environment. Construction work may destroy some elements of the local ecosystem and disturb others, which can have a huge knock-on effect for local and even national wildlife, as well as causing environmental damage. To try and counteract that, and to improve and protect the planet, the government has a set of rules around biodiversity in development projects – with the latest addition being a biodiversity net gain credit system.

Curlews are currently in decline in the UK and have been classified as a ‘Red List’ species since 2015 by the RSPB, indicating that it is a high conservation concern. The decline is largely due to habitat loss and degradation, as well as changes in land use practices and the impacts of climate change. The Breeding Bird Survey from the RSPB recorded significant declines in Scotland and England of 42 per cent between 1995 and 2008, while the British Trust for Ornithology highlighted in a 2006 survey that there was a rapid decline in Wales due to low breeding success.

If you’ve ever filled in a planning application before, you know there are a lot of conditions and regulations that need to be met in order for the application to be successful. In fact, if you get it wrong your application could be rejected purely because you didn’t include certain information, meaning you have to start the whole process again. It’s one of the reasons we recommend having a professional help you complete any planning application paperwork before filing it with the council. But for developers or those applying to build on new land, there is one area of planning applications that are often missed. Biodiversity.

Defra will soon open the second round of the Landscape Recovery scheme when they’ll welcome bids from farmers and land managers who want to take a large-scale, long-term approach to producing environmental and climate goods on their land.