Overview and purpose
The environmental benefits from nature tool is a decision-support tool that has been developed to work alongside the provision of biodiversity net gain and its metric tool (currently version 3.1). The environmental benefits from nature tool enables wider benefits for people and nature from habitat change.
The environmental benefits from nature tool has been developed by Natural England and the University of Oxford in partnership with Defra, the Forestry Commission and the Environment Agency to support the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan. View the biodiversity net gain metric.
The main objective of the Environment Plan is to expand net gain approaches to include wider Natural Capital benefits such as flood protection, recreation and improved water and air quality. The environmental benefits from nature tool is intended to help achieve this objective. It is designed to be used at a variety of scales and settings to help achieve improved environmental outcomes through better consideration of the services that nature provides.
Potential users include environmental consultants, house builders and infrastructure developers, local authorities working on Green Infrastructure, providers of off-site biodiversity units, and other habitat-led projects looking to consider wider benefits. The environmental benefits from nature tool is suitable for use at all stages of project delivery, from initial scoping to considering the best project options, application and post application assessment.
Key points to consider
The environmental benefits from nature tool is expected to be of particular interest to those professionals seeking to align projects with Environmental Net Gain commitments, and to explore ways to achieve more from their planned biodiversity net gain delivery. The tool can deliver in this respect through the following:
- providing a common and consistent means of considering the direct impact of land use change across the full range of services that nature delivers
- focusing on ecosystem services such as recreation, air and water quality regulation, and climate benefits such as cooling and shading and carbon storage
- indicating relative change in ecosystem service provision associated with habitat change, and is intended to commence discussions on wider benefits to people and enable better consideration of losses and gains in ecosystem services from development
How the environmental benefits from nature tool works
The environmental benefits from nature tool is designed to be used together with a biodiversity net gain assessment. Biodiversity net gain is the primary driver. One way to use the tool is to design a project to deliver biodiversity net gain and calculate the environmental benefits from nature tool scores for this project design. This will show either losses or gains in different ecosystem services, and the project can be amended to reduce losses and increase gains. If the changes are likely to affect the Biodiversity Metric results, the biodiversity and wider net gain assessment should be updated to ensure that biodiversity net gain is achieved in line with good practice guidance.
Another method is to apply the environmental benefits from nature tool at the same time as the Biodiversity Metric, so that the environmental benefits from nature tool informs the design of a biodiversity net gain project from the beginning. For example, this may highlight the importance of certain habitats for both their biodiversity value and ecosystem service provision, and help identify areas within the development site where habitat can be created or enhanced to maximise ecosystem service provision for people affected by habitat loss from the proposed development.
The environmental benefits from nature tool mirrors the approach of the Biodiversity Metric. The detail of the calculations involved in both is shown on page 21 of the initial Natural England document whose weblink is provided in the first section.
The environmental benefits from nature tool is based on the principle that healthy and diverse ecosystems underpin the long-term delivery of the ecosystem services. Hence, the core principle of the approach is that development should achieve biodiversity net gain. Once this has been demonstrated using an approved Biodiversity Metric, such as Biodiversity Metric 3.1, the environmental benefits from nature tool can be used to help explore opportunities to deliver wider natural capital benefits and minimise any negative impacts.
Biodiversity net gain cannot be lost in order to deliver gains in ecosystem services. If there are different options for delivering BNG, then the environmental benefits from nature tool can be used to assess which options provide the intended biodiversity net gain (primary objective) and also to maximise ecosystem services (secondary aim). However, the design of a biodiversity compensation site is based first and foremost on the biodiversity net gain good practice principles, and never only to maximise environmental benefits from nature tool scores for ecosystem services.
A separate user guide provides step by step instructions on how to use the tool. A Data Catalogue describes how to collect all the condition and spatial indicators required to run the tool. The initial document link in the first section explains how the User Guide and Data Catalogue can be consulted.
The practical implications for planning officers and applicants
While suitable for a range of applications, the EBN tool should not be used alone, but instead used alongside – and in addition to – a suite of established approaches, in particular biodiversity net gain, but also including Environmental Impact Assessments (where required) and detailed impact assessments, such as on flood risk or air quality.
The environmental benefits from nature tool does not replace or undermine existing legal or policy protections, and should be used in accordance with the established mitigation hierarchy of avoid damage, minimise damage, restore or rehabilitate damaged habitats, and only compensate through offsetting as a last resort.
The environmental benefits from nature tool takes a biodiversity-led approach and recognises that healthy, diverse and resilient ecosystems are essential to underpin the long-term delivery of multiple ecosystem services. It is designed to be used in conjunction with the Biodiversity Metric and – when used together with this, and other appropriate tools – can help to highlight wider service gains from proposed environmental work.
It can also help enable better consideration and delivery of these benefits to:
- maximise gains and minimise losses, through better project design
- support the business case for investment, by linking multiple objectives
- make the impacts of land-use change decisions more transparent to stakeholders
The wider benefits for people and nature identified through the environmental benefits from nature tool are intended to add to, rather than compete with, the primary driver of biodiversity net gain. Following good practice principles is crucial in ensuring that the approach will be applied correctly, and this will reduce the risk of perverse and unintended outcomes.
Relevant Craven local plan policies and guidance
Good Design SPD, Flood Risk & Water Management SPD, Biodiversity & Green Infrastructure SPD