Earlier this year, the government’s biodiversity net gain (BNG) legislation became mandatory for all sites. The new law demands a 10% biodiversity uplift on residential developments with ten or more dwellings. This is good news for landscape architecture, and I applaud the recognition that something had to be done to stall the rapid decline in UK nature.

When you consider that the UK has lost 19% of its native species since the 1970s, the changes couldn’t come soon enough. However, the new BNG metric calculator is not a perfect tool, and it poses some challenges and potential pitfalls.

…