Pro Landscaper has published a new Biodiversity Net Gain in Practice Guide with eight recommendations for how the legislation introduced earlier this year could be better implemented going forward.

The guide has been created following a day of workshops held in London which saw various stakeholders brought together to discuss different areas of the legislation. Focus groups discussed how the planning, implementation, maintenance and communication on biodiversity net gain could be developed.

The eight recommendations are as follows:

1. Ensure an initial understanding of the legislation and metric
2. Early engagement and better communication from the start
3. More clarity of local strategies and more support
4. Close loopholes and fill in the gaps
5. Upskilling is a necessity
6. Long-term thinking is required and bringing in growers to the conversation
7. Take into account the end user
8. Consider off-site over on-site gains

Biodiversity net gain became mandatory in February this year, requiring developers to deliver a minimum improvement of 10% to a development’s existing biodiversity and habitats, either onsite or offsite. If this cannot be achieved, credits must be purchased from the government.

This was extended to smaller sites in April, incorporating developments with fewer than 10 houses or smaller than 0.5ha, or commercial sites with a floor space below 1,000m2 or site areas below one hectare.

Ahead of the legislation initially coming into effect, Pro Landscaper launched a guide for biodiversity net gain, offering practical guidelines and comprehensive insight on the new government legislation. The latest guide is a follow-up to this, now that BNG has been mandatory for nine months.

Pro Landscaper will be looking to play an active role in continuing the conversation, bringing together those designing and delivering the projects, as well as helping to bridge the educational gap with developers and the public.

“We developed the BNG Workshops Day because we recognised that the introduction of BNG legislation offered an opportunity for the UK-based landscaping industry to offer influence, demonstrate value, and shape projects at earlier stages of development. To enable this there needed to be new levels of collaboration and connection and to also look at how we bridged knowledge gaps,” says David Griffiths, divisional director at Eljays44.

“It was great to be able to bring together key stakeholders together and witness the collaboration which has helped shape this guide. To realise the opportunity for our industry these conversations need to carry on and we see Pro Landscaper playing a pivotal role in enabling this.”

To download the latest Biodiversity Net Gain in Practice Guide, click here.