1. ENVIRONMENT BANK – A NEW LOOK AT MITIGATION
David Hill & Robert Gillespie 1

2. Key issues
Development Pressure and the step change in housing delivery
Applications and allocations
Protracted negotiations and delays / uncertainties
Environmentalists v Developers
Political response
Development industry initiatives
Reduction in delays and costs 2

3. Key issues
Our landscapes have changed dramatically in 50 years – macro-environmental changes as well as development
Planning has become more complex with limited outcomes
Legal and social requirements for mitigating impacts are failing to deliver 3

4. What have we lost? 4

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6. Our population is at its highest and continually growing
Our landscapes and biodiversity are more impoverished now than at any time in recorded history
Our population is at its highest and continually growing
By % of our population will live and function only in urban environments
Yet access to wildscapes and the countryside substantially improves physical health and well-being 6

7. UK habitat status - losses
50% ancient lowland woodland
150,000 miles hedgerows
95% traditional hay meadows
80% chalk downland
80% wetland fens & mires 7

8. Farmland Indicators 8

9. Unfavourable Condition
42% of the 1 million ha of SSSI’s
69% of rivers and streams
65% of upland grassland & heaths
35% of fen, marsh & swamp
33% of lowland broadleaved woodland
Everett (2004)
If you were running a business like we are running the environment, it would have been bankrupted years ago 9

10. ‘How we use land affects every single aspect of our lives today’
‘Even if climate change hadn’t landed in our midst as a massively ‘inconvenient truth’ the planet would still be falling to pieces in front of our eyes in terms of resource exploitation, pollution, loss of topsoil, water, forests…..’
‘How we use land affects every single aspect of our lives today’
The balance sheet is very scary !!
Jonathon Porritt, Insight 2007 10

11. Massive scope for mitigation
Ecosystem services
New habitat creation
Restoration
Reversing unfavourable condition
Landscape scale
Can mitigation and/or compensation mechanisms be used to big effect in the wider environment?
Mention latest Countryside Stewardship.
30,000 farmers get 150 million, ie. 5k each – relatively small scale changes can be bought for this.
Under new rules, another 150 million will be available.
But the cost of restoration of the UK landscape biodiversity runs into many billions. 11

12. Upland catchments UK holds c 20% of worlds blanket bog
UK uplands store 5 billion tonnes of carbon
Absorb 41,000 tonnes of C per year if pristine OR release 381,000 tonnes C if damaged by excessive burning, drainage, overgrazing
Reducing flood risk
Reducing massive costs of water colouration treatment 12

13. Planning is failing to deliver
Failure to :
- analyse impacts beyond site boundary
- quantify ecological impacts
- identify/measure cumulative effects
- mitigate important impacts
Lack of monitoring or follow up
Lack of enforcement
Responsibilities / maintenance / costs
Treweek (2000) 13

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15. COUNTRYSIDE QUALITY COUNTS

16. Supporting Policy
Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (1995);
World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg,2002);
5th EU Ministerial Conference (Kyiv, 2003);
Objective 4, EU Biodiversity Stakeholders Conference (Malahide, 2004);
Article 10, Habitats Directive (1992).
Regulation 37, Conservation (Natural Habitats &c.) Regulations (1994)
Planning Policy Statement 9: Biodiversity and Geological Conservation (ODPM 2005).

17. IS THERE A DIFFERENT APPROACH ?17

18. MITIGATION BANKING Not really a bank
An entity that restores, creates, enhances or preserves a species or habitat
The entity sells tangible units of habitat, termed credits, to a developer for compensation for equivalent units that the developer has destroyed, termed debits
Title never passes to the developer 18

19. ADVANTAGES Matches ecosystem services with development needs
Economies of scale - structured and efficient habitat regulation; encourages watershed-based planning
Range of habitats – woodlands, forests, created/restored heaths, restored moorland, grasslands
Deliver large scale habitats – ecological networks
Species networks – newts and reptiles
Provides confidence to the developer 19

20. A new facility?
Operates as a business in US for 15 years – environmental off-setting
Offers long-term solution to developer and independent from developer
Not yet a business in the UK – too focussed on small-scale, political boundaries
The time is right to establish a facility to help the development industry whilst providing biodiversity gains and access opportunities for people 20

21. THE ENVIRONMENT BANK LTD
1st company of its kind
Facilitates the delivery of mitigation and compensation schemes associated with planned development 21

22. The Environment Bank provides the mechanism by which effective biodiversity conservation can be delivered by taking a strategic approach, at various spatial scales, enabling landscapes of substantial worth to be created, managed and maintained within a long-term framework 22

23. Win-win Use of PGS type approach – Barker Review recommendations
Delivery mechanism for ecosystem services and nature conservation enhancements
Pooled contributions from developments used to provide landscape-scale, large cross-boundary initiatives 23

24. Specific objectives
Site purchase, habitat creation, restoration, enhancement and management
Identify suitable places and managers
An improved approach to land-use planning, reconciling conflicts between development and nature conservation
Areas for peaceful recreation, consistent with the Government’s initiatives for healthy living
Management planning and monitoring 24

25. Sectors Housing Infrastructure Port developments Retail
Distribution centres
Water resources and reservoirs
Waste management
Power
Climate proofing
Sport and leisure
Oil and gas
Minerals 25

26. Process Consultation – conservation advisers, planning authorities
Links to strategic developments, RSS’s, LDF’s
Developer purchases credits
Sites sought for purchase, land management agreements, restoration, enhancement
Large schemes can create their own income stream 26

27. Benefits Substantial gains through scale
More predictable and workable outcomes
Landscapes for people and wildlife
Policy compliant – PPS9, LDF’s, RSS’s
People engaging with their environment
Health and well-being
Easier to manage 27

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30. Talk to us… 30

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