ECOLOGY AND BIODIVERSITY
Our environmental advisors help you gain a clear, credible picture of your farm’s natural assets with professional ecology and biodiversity surveys. These are tailored to support your eligibility for funding streams such as Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG). From farmland bird counts to wetland assessments, we can help baseline your environmental position, strengthen your case when marketing produce, securing funding or making a case for the role of farming in a changing industry landscape.
BIODIVERSITY NET GAIN (BNG)
The emerging BNG market provides new opportunities for monetising on farm natural capital, using private money to create new habitats and improving biodiversity within the farmed landscape. Our advisors can provide baseline surveys for those who just wish to record their current position or are planning on creating additional habitat units. We can then help design uplift plans, give an indication of the additional units produced and create Habitat Management and Monitoring Plans ready for sale.
FARMLAND BIRD SURVEYS
Bird abundance and diversity is a highly reliable indicator of ecosystem health and therefore environmental quality of the farmed landscape. Good soil health, for example, results in better insect numbers which directly contributes to the breeding success, number and variety of farmland birds. Standardised bird monitoring is therefore a fantastic way to baseline, track and demonstrate your conservation progress over time and evidence the public goods your land is providing.
Our advisors use standard survey methods to record the birds present on farm, whether that be breeding pairs, wintering populations or a simple snapshot in time, and present this information to help demonstrate the current health of the environment and whether or not a trend can be seen.
SPECIES RECOVERY
Our highly knowledgeable advisors can offer advice tailored to the recovery of specific species, especially birds such as Turtle Dove, Grey Partridge, Lapwing, Corn Bunting and Barn Owl. We help to target the income streams and farming practices available, whether that be through the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Countryside Stewardship, Farming in Protected Landscapes or private natural capital markets such as Biodiversity Net Gain, and design these in a way that ensures they provide for the species.
WETLANDS
Wetlands areas, whether this is a small farm pond, fen, reedbed, saltmarsh or an extensive network of farm drains, scrapes and floodplain grassland, are all essential elements of biodiversity within the landscape, often supporting rare and specialised plants, invertebrates and mammals not found elsewhere. The last century saw a dramatic decline in wetland habitat and as such it is important to conserve, restore and create new wetland areas where possible.
If you would like to consider creating or restoring a new wetland area, whether with grant aid, for sporting requirements or purely for conservation interest, consider discussing your requirements with Oakbank. We can advise on the design, planning permission, planting and management of new wetland areas as well as surveying (e.g. water vole, great crested newt), enhancement or restoration of an existing wetland.
The Freshwater Habitats Trust has an excellent selection of free pond creation factsheets available to get your thinking started.