New biodiversity algorithm ‘will blight range of natural habitats in England’

Natural England biodiversity metric will let valuable wildlife habitat be logged as degraded' land and penalise rewilding, warn ecologists

The government's new metric for biodiversity will have to be urgently improved if it is going to be fit for purpose, academics and conservationists have warned.

The biodiversity net gain (BNG) metric, published by Natural England in July, outlines how new roads, houses and other building projects must achieve no net loss of biodiversity, or achieve a 10% net gain elsewhere if nature is damaged on site.