As the government invites views on the Defra Biodiversity Net Gain Metric that will soon become statutory in England, the LI has updated its guidance for landscape practitioners, including information on net gain legislation in the devolved nations

The government is running a technical consultation on the latest version of the Biodiversity Metric – the biodiversity accounting tool that developers use to calculate biodiversity net gain for terrestrial and intertidal development.
Closing on 27 September, the consultation will gather feedback on the Biodiversity Metric 3.1 and the Small Sites Metric. The consultation, which is a requirement of the Environment Act 2021, will inform the production of a statutory metric later in 2022, a year ahead of biodiversity net gain becoming mandatory in England.
Biodiversity net gain is an enormously important area of legislation for the landscape sector, and we encourage our members to respond to this consultation as individuals or on behalf of their organisations.
If you do respond to the consultation, we’d love to see and champion your views. Please get in touch via policy@landscapeinstitute.org.
Have your say on the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy 2022
The Scottish Government are also seeking views for their Biodiversity Strategy, which is due for publication later this year.
The Strategy will lead into the development of rolling delivery plans and, through the introduction of a Natural Environment Bill, statutory nature restoration targets in Scotland.
The LI will be responding to this consultation. If you’d like to feed into this process, please contact hazel.benza@landscapeinstitute.org.
Biodiversity net gain for landscape professionals
In line with the release of the new Metric 3.1, the LI has updated our policy briefing document Biodiversity net gain for landscape professionals.
This briefing discusses in detail why net gain is a key concept in landscape practice; explains what role landscape designers, planners, and managers can play in delivering net gain; and answers questions practitioners might have about its implementation.