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Introduction

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is transforming how we finance, design, build and operate development, with the UK’s Good Practice Principles providing an approach for development to generate long-term, measurable and meaningful benefits for biodiversity (CIEEM, CIRIA, IEMA, 2016). But while the UK has made progress towards this goal, a critical aspect may be missing: the connection between nature and people’s wellbeing.

BNG can benefit people, for example when communities can enjoy enriched natural surroundings either by BNG being achieved within the development footprint or when a biodiversity offset increases people’s access to, or views of, nature. But BNG can also cause harm, such as when BNG within a development is inaccessible to people, or when a biodiversity offset reduces people’s access to nature.

Existing policies should enable BNG to benefit people, and ensure that potential detrimental impacts on people from BNG are addressed. However, the social impacts of BNG are rarely considered and, when they are, it is not in a holistic way that fully understands or addresses how people’s wellbeing is affected.

International principles were published to address the social impacts of No Net Loss and BNG in depth (Bull et al, 2018). These ‘People Principles’ set an outcome for NNL/BNG projects to achieve:

People perceive the components of their wellbeing affected by biodiversity losses and gains to be at least as good as a result of the development project and associated biodiversity NNL/NG activities, than if the development had not been implemented

Wellbeing is defined as a positive physical, social and mental state. The ‘People Principles’ for NNL/BNG focus on wellbeing related to biodiversity. Their application involves measuring change to people’s wellbeing that is caused by losses and gains in biodiversity from a development and its BNG activities.

This survey is to gather views on whether wellbeing should be incorporated as part of the UK industry’s good practice approach to BNG.  We’d like to understand reasons why wellbeing should be incorporated into BNG. We’d also like to understand the challenges, issues and risks of incorporating wellbeing and how these might be overcome.

This survey is part of a scoping study by CIEEM in collaboration with Balfour Beatty and the University of Oxford, which is funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. Survey responses will be anonymised and the data collected will be analysed, with the results published early 2021.

Thank you for your time to complete this survey. If you have any questions about the survey or would like more information, please email enquiries@cieem.net

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* 1. Please select the option that best represents your organisation or current type of work

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* 2. Please select the main area of your professional work

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* 3. Please select the number of years of your professional experience

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* 4. Please select your main country or countries of work

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* 5. BNG and Wellbeing: reasons why

International principles have set an outcome for NNL/BNG projects to achieve:

People perceive the components of their wellbeing affected by biodiversity losses and gains to be at least as good as a result of the development project and associated biodiversity NNL/NG activities, than if the development had not been implemented

For the UK, there are reasons to incorporate wellbeing as part of an industry-based good practice approach to BNG. These might include (NB these are just examples and there might be other reasons for incorporating wellbeing into BNG):

Reasons why:
a) Increased likelihood of BNG success
Projects that understand and reflect local people’s interests and concerns about nature are most likely to deliver successful biodiversity outcomes over the long term

b) Data for better decision making
Integrating wellbeing into impact assessments generates insights and evidence to improve decision making by investors, planners and developers

c) Demonstrate benefits
Designing BNG to enhance people’s wellbeing will enable developers to demonstrate these additional benefits from their development

d) Social licence to operate
Engaging stakeholders through wellbeing assessment, and making better decisions based on wellbeing data, can reduce risks of protests and objections to a development (and the time and costs associated with managing these risks)

e) True sustainable development
Advances in the application of sustainable development adopt wellbeing as the cornerstone of what true sustainable development looks like, and is evaluated against. This should also apply to BNG.

Please describe any other reasons to incorporate wellbeing as part of an industry-based good practice approach to BNG (put n/a if there are no other reasons)

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* 6. These possible reasons to incorporate wellbeing as part of an industry-based good practice approach to BNG are listed below. Please rank these reasons to incorporate wellbeing into BNG in order of importance for your work, with 1 being the most important and N/A for any that are not relevant to your work.

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* 7. Please describe the reasons for your first choice or explain your alternative main reason if it is not on the list

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* 8. BNG and Wellbeing Challenges

There could be challenges to incorporate wellbeing as part of an industry-based good practice approach to BNG. These might include (NB these are just examples):

Challenges

A) Lessens the BNG ambition
Integrating wellbeing into BNG will lessen and dilute ambitions to improve biodiversity through development, with the risk that the net gains for biodiversity are compromised 

B) Already covered elsewhere
Social impacts of a development including BNG are already covered elsewhere by other policies and regulations

C) Extra costs and time
Undertaking wellbeing assessments for BNG adds extra costs and time that are an onerous burden especially for small-scale developments

D) Too difficult to do
Given the subjective nature of wellbeing, it is difficult to assess well and the validity of the assessments can be challenged

E) Lack of resources and capabilities
Wellbeing assessments requires specialist skills and collaboration between biodiversity and social experts that is not always practical or feasible especially on smaller developments

Please describe any other challenges to incorporate wellbeing as part of an industry-based good practice approach to BNG (put n/a if there are no other challenges you can think of). 

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* 9. Please describe how any of these challenges could be overcome

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* 10. The possible challenges to incorporate wellbeing as part of an industry-based good practice approach to BNG are listed below. Please rank these challenges to incorporate wellbeing into BNG in order of importance for your work, with 1 being the most important and N/A for any that are not relevant to your work. 

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* 11. Please explain the reasons for your first choice or describe an additional challenge that you think is more important.

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* 12. Please describe how your first choice challenge could be overcome

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* 13. BNG and Wellbeing: a win-win?

International good practice is to achieve net gains in biodiversity in ways that, as a minimum, do not negatively affect people’s wellbeing. In practice this means not compromising BNG in order to address negative impacts on wellbeing, or indeed for BNG to enhance wellbeing. Rather it is to identify and implement the range of measures necessary to generate both the desired biodiversity and wellbeing outcomes. Sometimes these measures will be the same thing, while other times the measures will be different or in different locations. Whichever is appropriate, achieving this “win win” for biodiversity and people’s wellbeing can be challenging.

Please describe the measures you feel are necessary to achieve this “win win” whereby the desired BNG and wellbeing outcomes are achieved, and neither BNG nor wellbeing is compromised

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* 14. BNG and Wellbeing: practical support

Guidance, training and tools to support the implementation of BNG have focused on the conservation values of biodiversity. This approach to address the social aspects of BNG includes integrating wellbeing data into the design and implementation of BNG.  This requires collaboration between biodiversity and social experts, as well as support such as practical tools, training and guidance.

We want to understand what support might be required to integrate wellbeing into BNG, as well as the range of existing wellbeing assessments and tools already being used.

In order of importance for your work, please rank the following support to incorporate wellbeing into BNG (with 1 being the most important).

  1 2 3 4 5 N/A
Industry standards for surveys and impact assessments on linking wellbeing and biodiversity
Training
Practical guidance and tools
Templates for surveys, reports, etc.
Support to collaborate with social science /  biodiversity specialists

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* 15. Please describe the reasons for your highest ranking choice

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* 16. Please describe any existing guidance, training or other practical tools in ANY sector that might be relevant and useful for incorporating wellbeing in BNG. Please include any references or weblinks if relevant.

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* 17. Please describe any projects you have been involved in/are aware of which have involved wellbeing (please describe ANY projects not just developments seeking BNG). Please include references and/or weblinks if relevant.

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* 18. Comments

Are there any other comments or feedback you wish to give about whether and how wellbeing could be incorporated as part of an industry-based good practice approach to BNG?

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* 19. Would you like to be kept informed about the project and have further opportunities to engage? If so please add you name and email address below.

0 of 19 answered
 

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