by Green Finance Institute |  Aug 1, 2024

Through a Working Group of market experts and other key stakeholders totalling over 100 individuals, GFI Hive has developed a Roadmap for Action on Biodiversity Net Gain. This document has been created to offer central government a comprehensive overview of the major challenges within the BNG market and a view, based on market feedback, on how best to move forward in partnership with industry.

Over five months have passed since the launch of mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), and market feedback has reflected a number of challenges and barriers that are preventing the policy from reaching its full potential.

As of 31 July 2024, the biodiversity gain sites register lists nine sites, totalling under 300 hectares, well below estimates of 6,700 hectares of off-site habitat being created each year.

Early feedback also suggests that demand for sites is low due to exemptions and other routes being relied on to circumvent BNG obligations. Even fewer of these have been approved, reflecting critical gaps in the capacity and resources of Local Planning Authorities (LPAs).

A group of over 100 cross-sectoral experts leading on the development of BNG projects and other key components of its success was convened by GFI Hive in order to bring together a comprehensive assessment of the challenges within the BNG market. A full list of all contributors can be found within the acknowledgements of the Roadmap.

The purpose of the Working Group was two-fold:

1. Provide government (primarily Defra) with an overview of the challenges faced by market stakeholders and suggest which solutions government can prioritize, especially those that can be actioned before and after the BNG policy review in the next three to five years.
2. Help market stakeholders develop a common understanding of the major challenges facing the space and what solutions may be possible – including those that can be delivered with further effort and input from the market.

The full Roadmap is available here

In total, the Roadmap identifies and assesses 40 challenges across four pillars of BNG policy design – Metric, Central Governance, Supply and Demand. Each pillar highlights challenges, prioritized to reflect where attention is most needed. The challenges also contain potential actions for government to consider.

Finally, for a select number of challenges, we have included case studies to show where market actors are working through potential solutions.

This Roadmap follows an initial briefing note that was published by GFI Hive in February 2024.

If you have any questions or comments on this Roadmap, or would like to be involved in further discussions, please contact us at hive@gfi.green or phoebe.tucker@gfi.green.

Photo credit: Philip Kapadia