Development of Biodiversity Management Systems

Descriptions

Torfaen County Borough Council (TCBC) wishes to appoint a specialist consultant to develop a biodiversity mitigation and enhancement strategy to support the emerging Local Development Plan. We are looking into new approaches that deliver targeted biodiversity gain to the communities that need it most through the planning system and investigating new ways of reporting and monitoring progress through the Local Biodiversity Action Plan.2011 offers an outstanding opportunity to review a number of systems and transform the way that TCBC plans for and delivers biodiversity and green infrastructure outcomes. It is already planned to publish the LDP; develop the Community Strategy, review the Biodiversity Action Plan; and complete the Vanguard review of Development Control. This creates an ideal opportunity to put in place collaborative systems for planners, managers of green infrastructure and asset managers that are focused on outcomes rather than the process.The basic premise is that we should know exactly what we have and where we want to get to in terms of green infrastructure. We can use GIS to map what resources we currently have and then create a vision of a more coherent and connected network of resources for the future. We could then identify areas where the best opportunities lie to enhance the network of resources across Torfaen. Opportunities to enhance the green network could be packaged into costed projects that could be “traded” against development impacts to offset the loss to the overall network.Essentially, a market can be established in offsetting projects. Offsetting projects could be carried out on Council assets, which would increase the asset value (as developers would have to pay for offsetting measures) as well as increasing the sustainability of those assets. For example, a grazing plot or school grounds that lie within an opportunity area could be enhanced for biodiversity through a costed project. A developer would pay for this project as a way for offsetting the impacts predicted from their development.To be able to implement such a system, we will need a new way of valuing the green infrastructure resources in a way that can be used by decision makers in terms of whether the loss of a resource would be acceptable and what compensation would be required if it were to be lost. Green infrastructure resources will have to be defined in tradable (and/or non tradable) units to facilitate decisions on whether it is acceptable to lose a resource and if so, what offsetting measures are required to ensure a long term sustainable development. Current valuation systems are too complex and too technical for stakeholders to use and are unfit for the purpose of decision making.As well as offsetting specific measurable impacts from individual developments, the new system should be able to recover income relating to offsetting cumulative development impacts. It will be possible to cost all the work TCBC carries out only because development exists and raise that pro rata via all developers as a green infrastructure levy. Although the GIS development and strategic network (ecosystem approach) thinking can be informed by a number of pilot sites elsewhere in UK, the new valuation system will be a first, providing the key link between the technical specialists and the planners and project managers that have to make day to day decisions. The system will provide robust support for the LDP by demonstrating we have a strategy that overcomes the apparent conflict between development and biodiversity. The system will also put in place a method of implementing the Community Infrastructure Levy with maximum income generation for the Council through the levy. As well as this, the system will be much clearer and streamlined for all stakeholders involved.Each Local Planning Authority must demonstrate that there is no overall negative effect on biodiversity in delivering developments identified in the deposit Torfaen LDP. TCBC are demonstrating this through the Biodiversity Management Principles and Road Map LDP supporting paper. The paper outlines an approach that has yet to be implemented.Completion date for this brief is no later than the 15th December 2011