Dr Andrew Buxton presents ‘Integrating BNG with District Licensing for great crested newts’ at the CIEEM Spring Conference, 19 March 2024


Dr Andrew Buxton MCIEEM, spoke at the CIEEM Spring conference outlining NatureSpace’s proposed Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and District Licensing integrated delivery plan. A lot of work was involved in getting this work stream to a point that it could be successfully integrated. Andrew presented how NatureSpace‘s proposed integrated delivery plan would work in relation to stacking nature markets and discussed the key issues that have been overcome to allow integration. Andrew was delighted to be able to finally share this externally with a very engaged audience.

The presentation was of great interest to both consultant ecologists and planning ecologists. Consultant ecologists will need to be aware of this ‘soon to be launched’ delivery model in discussion with their clients, while planning ecologists will need to understand how it is compliant with both schemes. Ecologists and land managers will also be interested in a BNG delivery scheme aiming to incorporate high and very high distinctiveness habitats into the delivery model, defined by NGO partners to contribute more to the delivery of Local Nature Recovery Strategies.

Currently NatureSpace Partnership deliver the only private enterprise version of strategic licensing for great crested newts in England, partnering with over 65 local planning authorities and infrastructure organisations. Following government policy announced in Spring 2022 relating to BNG, alongside a considerable interest from developers to allow their District Licensing (DL) compensation requirement to deliver BNG units, as well as interest from DL host landowners that were interested in the additional income that could be generated via BNG unit sales. NatureSpace and the Newt Conservation Partnership recently completed a NEIRF funded project to explore the mechanisms to allow integrated BNG and DL compensation delivery, as well as using integrated delivery to improve the viability of distinctive, high-quality freshwater habitat conservation projects funded via BNG commitments.

Within this presentation Andrew explored the issues of integrating BNG and DL compensation delivery including:

  • Additionality rules
  • Opposing scheme principles and requirements (compensation assignment, BNG hierarchy, legal agreements and compensation longevity)
  • Double funding of compensation
  • Double charging of impact.

Andrew also explored how an integrated delivery programme can be designed to overcome these challenges exploring what this means both in terms of on-site BNG delivery and off-site compensation provision. Anfrew finished the presentation by discussing the roll out plan for NatureSpace’s integrated programme.