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How Do You Protect Wildlife on a Proposed Development Site?

Posted on: Tuesday, 19 July 2005, 03:01 CDT

There are many issues that must be considered when developing a site inhabited by protected species, says Libby Crew

English wildlife law and policy has important implications forthe way in which developers can conducttheirwork on site. Wildlife law is mostly based on international agreements that the UK government has signed. The legislation is designed to protect the sites that Pest represent UK wildlife as well as protect species and habitats that are threatened by human activity.

Wildlife must also be considered in the planning process. This is enshrined in central government planning policy- PPG9 - and legislation - the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 1999-with the aim of providing forthe conservation of wildlife while encouraging sustainable development.

When planning permission issoughtfor a development, the local authority must take UK and local biodiversity action plan targets into account when considering the application. Planners and developers can demonstrate their commitment to protecting wildlife by taking species and habitats into consideration when planning the layout and timing of a development.

Consultations with an ecologistatthe start of a development will not only benefit the wildlife, but also reduce the time and expense needed to ensure that development activities do not breach any UK or international wildlife legislation. In addition, such consultations can generate some good publicity for the developer by actively demonstratingits commitment to protectingwildlife.

A protected species is found on site

National planning policy dictates that a local authority should take the presence of protected species into accountwhen consideringa planningapplication, and is soon likely to include a presumption against developments that harm protected species unless the benefits of the development clearly outweigh the harm. This is also soon to be extended to biodiversity action plan species.

However, the presence of a protected species on a site does not usually mean that a development proposal will be refused planning permission. When permission is given in such cases, the legislation still applies and conditions may be attached specifying compliance with the legislation as a minimum.

Protected species licences

Licences are issued by government agencies to permit activities that would otherwise be illegal. They may be issued to allow disturbance to a species or damage to their habitats. However, they are not generally issued to allow the killingor injury of species that are of conservation concern.

Licences may also be required for survey work involving protected species and development activities that could affect them. Forsome protected species, including all European protected species and badgers, it is possible toapply fora licence allowing development activities to go ahead while remainingwithin the law. A consultant ecologist will give advice on when a licence application should be made, based on specialist knowledge of the species and any survey information already gathered.

The licensing process differs depending on whether the species is covered by European or UKonly legislation, and on the level of protection afforded to the species in question.

Mitigation programmes

In its broadest sense, mitigation is a term often used to describe measures to avoid, mitigate and compensate fortne impacts of a development. A mitigation programme produced for a development site may describe measures that fall into some or all of these categories. The mitigation measures should be proportionate to the scale of the predicted impact and be relevant to the species and habitats affected.

Best practice guidelines generally stipulate that the primary aim of the ecologist and developershould be to avoid significant adverse impacts on wildlife. In many cases this can be achieved simply by considering the potential ecological impacts of a development at the outset and allowing the development plan to be modified accordingly, often at no additional cost to the developer. For instance, if a particular development has the potential to affect the habitat of great crested newts at the site, the layout could be changed leaving the newts unaffected.

It may not always be possible to completely avoid adverse impacts, so measures can be taken to reduce their severity. This is mitigation in its strictest sense. For instance, if the design of a developmentthatwould have affected the newts' habitat is changed so that at least some of the best habitat such as the breeding pond and nearby woodland is preserved, the impact of habitat loss has therefore been reduced.

As a last resort, it may be possible to offset the impacts of a development by compensatingforthem. Again usingthe great crested newt as an example, if the development cannot be redesigned to retain the newts' habitat, the developer could create another habitat in an area away from the site in an attempt to replicate what would be lost as a result of the development.

Construction activities may harm protected species if they are not removed from the site. Translocation -the relocation of a protected species to a habitat that is able to support it- and exclusion methods-the removal of a protected species from the development site and preventing its return, often by means of exclusion fencing- may therefore be employed. In a lot of cases it may be possible to allow them to reinhabit the site once the development has been completed and any necessary habitat enhancements have been carried out.

Libby Crew is marketing manager at Thomson Ecology.

This article is based on a recent sole practitioners network talk by Thomson Ecology technical director Richard Arnold. The company is a professional consultancy specialising in ecology and covers a range of habitats and species. Visititviawww.thomsonecology.com.

Protection: great crested newt breeding pond retained at housing development

Copyright Haymarket Business Publications Ltd. Jul 1, 2005

Source: Planning

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