BO - A Massive Threat to the Landscaping Industry - Forum

BO in this case refers to Biodiversity Offsetting, but stinks as badly if not worse than a personal hygiene problem. At first glance this initiative on offer from the Government seems harmless, indeed it appears to be a good idea. BUT I felt compelled to write on here as it is a real danger to all SMEs working in land industry.Landscaping is a fragile industry. Relegated for as long as I can remember well below its peer industries, despite containing the skills and knowledge to easily establish sustainable measures in all development. It has suffered from a weak presence (although LJN has clearly started to turn this around) and remains at the mercy of 'gardening journalists' and other egos that continue to stray into our territory without an invite - All of which mean that landscapers continue to be drastically underpaid in relation to the qualifications, skills and knowledge and business overheads. Biodiversity Offsetting will not only continue for the foreseeable future but most likely worsen it and will certainly kill off a number of businesses should it happen as government and some nature charities want it to.Basically a Biodiversity Offsetting project will be as follows: A developer wishes to build on a site which contains some wildlife. That wildlife is valued. The developer pays that value to a 'wildlife' charity who then use it towards conservation work somewhere else.This bypasses any measures for good or sustainable design with the development. Any chance of money towards good biodiversity friendly landscaping on site is gone. And don't think that there will be work on the conservation site as these charities will be using volunteers - they will be making a lot of money at the expense of the landscape industry (the RSPB and Woodland Trust are both 'interested' in the initiative.There will be dissent, primarily from academics and scientists as well as many practitioners who that offsetting biodiversity is just plain nonsense. It cannot be done as we do not yet know all there is to know about even a spadeful of soil.I am not surprised that the landscape industry's toothless accreditation organisations are not to the best o my knowledge even slightly concerned - but they should be. An industry like ours that should be, could be at the forefront at sustainable development is not only sidelined (as always) but will struggle for survival because of the huge cloud of Quango & NGO staff desperate to Hoover up every possible penny they can.

We may have to wait until the economy improves to see the effects, as many developers are sitting on their hands at the moment waiting to see which areas rebound back first, and focus development there.

That said, its the same logic as is often seen with development - I can think of one example recently in North Leeds, a row of Oak, Birch and Alder, with significant deadwood on a stretch of stream, 100m long.... All cut down for 3 detached semi-mansions ot be built (think the 900k-1mil type), and to satisfy the planners as they were TPO trees.... the same number of "Healthy living equivilent trees" were included in the plan.... bye-bye dead wood, part dead trees not counted.... a few amelanchier, a couple of paper birch, a rowan and some acers.... nothing that will ever compare.The trees were only removed for access ironically aswell....... shows the logic.

Replies

PRO

Craig McGinty April 25, 2013 at 6:13pm

This is very interesting Pip, a couple of links to help others:

DEFRA - Biodiversity offsetting
Guidance and information on biodiversity offsetting for providers and developers of offsetting schemes.

George Monbiot, The Guardian, Biodiversity offsetting will unleash ...
A place of outstanding wildlife value may be destroyed if in return someone is paid to create a habitat elsewhere.
Pip Howard April 25, 2013 at 6:56pm

Thanks Craig, more in line with the SD angle is this brilliant succinct blog by Sally Marsh (Director of the High Weald AONB) : http://www.highweald.org/home/directors-blog/entry/biodiversity-off...

"Biodiversity offsetting – in the words of Edmund Blackadder: ‘the only slight problem with this plan is that it’s bollocks"
Dan Frazer Gardening April 25, 2013 at 7:43pm

Has anyone had a spanner thrown into the works and lost a job because of this? Building will always go on, and I'd be interested to know if there have been any real impacts...
Pip Howard April 25, 2013 at 8:07pm

There have been 6 pilot schemes which thankfully didn't amount to much - and it is only just been rolled out. There are many flaws to it and I hope that it won't gather any momentum, after all what kind of developer would look at this and think it is a good idea? Bypassing the local community also means bypassing the benefits, including financial this brings. So no job losses yet - and I really hope there won't be any. There is no real campaign against BO as yet and may not need to be, hopefully.
David Cox April 25, 2013 at 9:55pm

We may have to wait until the economy improves to see the effects, as many developers are sitting on their hands at the moment waiting to see which areas rebound back first, and focus development there.

That said, its the same logic as is often seen with development - I can think of one example recently in North Leeds, a row of Oak, Birch and Alder, with significant deadwood on a stretch of stream, 100m long.... All cut down for 3 detached semi-mansions ot be built (think the 900k-1mil type), and to satisfy the planners as they were TPO trees.... the same number of "Healthy living equivilent trees" were included in the plan.... bye-bye dead wood, part dead trees not counted.... a few amelanchier, a couple of paper birch, a rowan and some acers.... nothing that will ever compare.The trees were only removed for access ironically aswell....... shows the logic.
PRO

Phil Voice September 5, 2013 at 12:45pm

Open consultation - Biodiversity offsetting in England published today:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/biodiversity-offsetting...
neil aldridge September 6, 2013 at 2:35am

i read something similar very recently, sort of ties in to this BO issue but on a global banker controlled scale. not the article i read but is of the same nature

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/banks...