The UK Government regulates all developers to achieve a 10% net gain in biodiversity
Picture by Bristol Photography
The UK government has regulated that all developers in the country are legally obliged to achieve a 10% net gain in biodiversity for every project undertaken. This law is applicable to both small and large-scale developments such as real-estates, roads, railways, and solar farms.
The law mandates all developers to avoid destroying any biodiversity and develop new wildlife habitats during project construction by restoring 100% of the damage done to existing wildlife habitats and by creating new wildlife habitats for a 10% net gain in biodiversity. The developers are also required to maintain these wildlife habitats for a minimum of 30 years.
Developers can achieve this biodiversity net gain (BNG) by creating biodiversity habitats within the construction site, outside of the construction site, by buying biodiversity credits from the government which will be used for habitat creation around England, or by using a combination of all three options.
Experts consider this law a significant step forward in preserving and developing natural habitats as a 10% net improvement by thousands of small and large-scale developers would result in many more wildlife habitats around the country than what exists today.
Similar initiatives are seen in Columbia where developers are required to buy units of habitat banks maintained for wildlife conservation equivalent to 1% value of the total investment and in Australia where developers can make voluntary contributions to the biodiversity credits market.
