First “habitat bank” signed up

A parcel of farmland in Coverdale is believed to have become the first Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) “habitat bank” in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The land will be grazed and managed to enhance biodiversity, generating so called “BNG units” for sale.

The landowner will be able to sell the BNG units to housing and other developers who, unable to achieve biodiversity gain on their own site, can pay towards biodiversity enhancements elsewhere also known as “off-site”.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has signed a landmark legal agreement with Habitat NW Ltd, which will see the Authority monitoring the habitat bank for the next 30 years, to ensure that the biodiversity gains are made.

It is hoped that this will be the first of many habitat banks in the National Park, and that they will make a meaningful contribution to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Partnership’s landscape scale nature recovery objectives. 

One of the landowners at the Coverdale site is ecologist, Russell Grey (pictured).  He has engaged local farmer Stuart Raw to use cattle to graze the land to encourage species diversity, reduce nutrient levels and improve vegetation structure, as well as to produce high quality beef.

Having entered into the legal agreement with the National Park Authority, Habitat NW Ltd will now be able to take the next step of registering the habitat bank on the government’s biodiversity gain site register, so that the BNG units can be sold.

Russell Grey, from Habitat North West Ltd, said:  “We bought this land [75 acres in Coverdale] about 18 months ago, with the intention of using it as a habitat bank.  It was previously grazed quite intensively by sheep. It was short grassland, relatively species poor and of low ecological value.  The aim is to make part of the site a lot wetter, slowing down the flow of water, with much more diverse vegetation, grazing it with cattle.  The habitat we’re creating will also support breeding wading birds such as the nationally declining curlew, lapwing and golden plover.

“In 2024 we did a baseline habitat survey so we could assess the current condition of the land.  We then carried out a baseline BNG metric assessment, which gave us a value, a starting point.  We predicted where we could get to – our end habitat type – in 30 years’ time.

Farmer Stuart Raw said : “From this 75 acres there is extensive grazing for upland beef cattle to provide a high quality beef product. 

“The habitat bank is not taking away agricultural production.  It’s utilising the land in a different way. That’s important for the dales.  We want the dales to be farmed as much as possible but in the right way.

Member Champion for Development Management at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Andrew Murday, said:  “We want to do everything in our power to bring about nature recovery in the National Park.   That’s why we’ve seized the opportunity to become a monitoring and enforcement body for habitat banks for off site biodiversity net gain. 

“It is significant for us that this first habitat bank does not take farmland out of production.  It is through nature friendly farming, more than anything else, that we are going to bring about nature recovery in the National Park. 

“Although we need to be cautious about what is a new policy, biodiversity net gain could make a meaningful contribution to our nature recovery targets.   It’s quite feasible that a housing developer in say, Surrey, would buy the BNG units generated by the habitat bank in Coverdale.  So it’s great for the National Park because we get the biodiversity enhancements without the developmental impacts.”