Our Process
If you are a landowner and are looking to sell Biodiversity Net Gain units from your land, your first step is to ensure that you have conducted a Biodiversity baseline assessment and net gain assessment, to assess the number of BNG units that could be achieved on your land. Once these surveys are completed, a Habitat Management and Monitoring Plan will need to be put together. This will specify the plan for implementing the improvements and enhancements of the habitats on your land, followed by their maintenance over 30 years.
This is where we come in.
The Initiation Stages
Get in touch with us once you have your finalised Habitat Management and Monitoring Plan. We believe in developing long lasting relationships with the landowners we have conservation covenants with, so the initial stage will involve a discussion between the two parties to identify your proposed plans for the land.
In addition to this discussion, there will be some initial checks made by ourselves to ensure we are happy to proceed with the legal agreement. These include:
* A review of the proposed changes to the land, including your existing BNG baseline and net gain assessments.
* A review of the Habitat Management and Monitoring Plan to ensure it is to the appropriate standard.
* An investigation of the legal title of the land.
* Any further checks required to ensure there are no conflicts of interest or risks we should be aware of.
The Conservation Covenant
Once we have completed our initial checks and are happy for the agreement to proceed, we will put together the Conservation Covenant. The Conservation Covenant is a legal agreement that details the plans for the land, the process for any land related disputes and the details of any costs related to the improvement ad maintenance of the land.
Once this has been agreed and signed, a local land charge will be registered.
The Monitoring Period
Once the Conservation Covenant is in place, it is our responsibility to ensure that the improvement and maintenance of the land, as detailed in the Habitat Management and Monitoring Plan, are completed. This is achieved by monitoring the land utilising the monitoring plans included within the HMMP and Conservation Covenant.
The monitoring visits can be conducted by ourselves, to provide you with an all inclusive solution and enabling us to actively monitor the site’s progress. Alternatively, you can instruct your own ecologist to conduct the monitoring visits and produce reports which we will then review and verify.
You can see the process as a whole below:
Need further help?
If you need assistance completing the initial surveys and assessments needed to put a Conservation Covenant in place, we can recommend an ecological firm that can help you with this.