Happy 1st Birthday! 🎂

Statutory BNG in England turns 1 today! After a busy year working with our partners to deliver quality habitats and assisting developer clients with their BNG goals, here are some of our thoughts on what has been achieved.

Land, such as at our flagship habitat bank at Sleight Farm, has been deliberately set aside and habitat creation and enhancement has started across England. Without BNG as mandatory legislation, action at this scale wouldn't be happening (43 off-site gain sites registered with 1,216 ha of land for offsite gains so far). As these sites are secured for 30+ years it’s too early to predict results ecologically, though from our experience, by giving nature this space and protecting it in this way we expect a range positive outcomes for habitats and species.

The BNG metric as a tool allows the 'value' of nature to be understood across industries and is promoting strategic land selection, whilst we at Biofarm deal with the mitigation of habitats and assisting clients achieve a minimum 10% gain. The unseen side of the legislation is that it reinforces avoidance within the mitigation hierarchy and therefore reduces losses of important habitats at the land selection stage.

Whilst the concept has been developed and iterated for over a decade, as legislation it is still new and as with anything new there are challenges and a learning process for all involved It is key to engage in good faith and work as an industry to ensure consistence in best practice approaches, which will mature and develop over time. Early engagement with ecologists and BNG experts will ensure a smoother process for all involved.

As a world leading policy for Biodiversity, BNG in England is setting an example that other countries will learn from and new nature markets will be established on the back of. It is the start of an exciting shift in creating Natural Capital markets and beginning to understand the true value that Nature brings.

We look forward to many more years of BNG and the upcoming Local Nature Recovery Strategies and results of the Land Use Consultation that we see BNG playing a part of. We remain committed to making it work for landowners, developers, and nature recovery.

Biofarm’s first year in numbers:

1.     1,250 habitat units for sale across 621 acres
2.     A further 5,367 habitat units in the pipeline
3.     393 habitat units created
5.     5 longhorn cattle working hard to restore nature
6.     2 Tamworth pigs rootling in the soil
7.     12 Biofarm team members making the biodiversity dream happen