Achieving biodiversity net gain in a neoliberal economy: The case of England
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Achieving biodiversity net gain in a neoliberal economy: The case of England Stephen Knight-Lenihan
Received: 19 June 2019 / Revised: 7 November 2019 / Accepted: 7 April 2020
Abstract The United Kingdom Government intends to require land development in England to contribute to improving biodiversity values. The basis for this, the offsetting of impacts on biodiversity, stems from and reinforces a neoliberal economic approach, fits with the privatising of conservation, and at a landscape level may improve biodiversity values. However, challenging decision-makers is the current lack of robust evidence that offsetting works, meaning allowing development despite uncertain future biodiversity benefits. Additionally, financial support for local government is declining, making it unclear whether and how effective independent auditing of biodiversity net gain will be. Keywords Offsetting Public–private Restoration United Kingdom
INTRODUCTION In January 2020, the United Kingdom Government introduced its Environment Bill to Parliament, which includes provision for gains in biological diversity to be a condition of planning permission in England (Part 6). The objective is that development in England contributes to improving on-site habitat biodiversity value by at least 10% of predevelopment values. This can include using off-site biodiversity gains (Defra 2019; Environment Bill Schedule 14). Currently, public bodies must have regard to conserving biodiversity (Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 s40) and the National Planning Policy Framework (2018 version) says local plans should pursue opportunities
for securing measurable net biodiversity gains (paragraphs 174–177). The Environment Bill’s strengthening of these provisions is accompanied by a project to update and standardise the net gain assessment process (Crosher et al. 2019) known as Biodiversity Metric 2.0. The concept underpinning the Bill, Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), challenges the commonly applied mitigation hierarchy of avoiding the ecological harm associated with development, and adding value where possible, toward a planning practice where adding value is the required outcome (Kiesecker et al. 2010; Phalan et al. 2017; Defra 2018a, b). However, in addition to ecological benefit, BNG is expected to deliver benefits for developers (Defra 2018b). While it is promoted as eventually embedding biodiversity values in land costs and sending the correct pricing signals to potential investors, it is also expected to standardise planning processes and reduce region-by-region debates over what is needed to fulfil BNG requirements. The intention is that this will facilitate the consenting process, save processing costs, and create development opportunities (CIWEM 2018; Defra 2013, 2018a, b; Hill 2019; Hoskin et al. 2019). This article examines whether the application of BNG in such a neoliberal economic setting can deliver meaningful ecological goals. Literature assessing the basis for BNG, biodiversity offsetting, is reviewed, as is th
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