Ecological Management Plans

Ecological management plans can take 2 basic forms: one is increasingly required in support of new development proposals, in order to specify the actions required in the long term to achieve and maintain the required biodiversity improvements, whilst a second is often needed to outline the ongoing management requirements for areas such as nature reserves, parks and other large areas of land.

Many UK planning authorities already require submission of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) plans alongside certain development projects. Furthermore, the UK Environment Act 2021 makes provision for widening this requirement to all English authorities as well for the enforcement of such plans. However, BNG plans will need to be supported by ecological site-management plans to ensure that the required improvement in biodiversity is achieved and maintained in the long term, rather than being merely a short-term aim to be forgotten with time. It is therefore likely that most planning authorities will require ecological management plans to be submitted, along with the BNG proposal in order to obtain planning permission. Wales and Scotland currently employ a different approach to specifying biodiversity improvements within development projects, but will still require an ecological management plan to support the submission.

We have provided ecological site management plans of both types for some of our clients, so if you need help with preparing one for your project or area of land, please contact us.

An ecological site management plan for a development project will usually include:

  • An ecological design which specifies the actions and timescales required to achieve the required improvement in biodiversity, when compared to the state prior to initiation of the development project and over and above that which would have been achieved if no action had been taken. However, this design might have already been defined in a separate document and approved.
  • Maintenance actions and timescales which will promote or assist achievement of the designed habitats.
  • An inspection regime to monitor progress towards achieving the design and to identify issues which were not foreseen at the design stage.
  • Corrective actions should any aspect of the design not meet the expected progress at any of the inspections or checks.
  • The actions to be taken should any unforeseen events or conditions affect the biodiversity improvement plan.

A management plan designed to cover management of an area such as a nature reserve might include:

  • The aims of, the rationale behind, and the period covered by, the new management plan.
  • Reference to earlier management plans, reports raised within the previous management plan period and surveys.
  • The results of investigations into local ecological records, historic usage of the land and changes since the issue of the last management plan.
  • The results of a recent Phase 1 Habitat Survey.
  • Where appropriate, the results of: a Woodland Condition Assessment, a Grassland Condition Assessment, surveys of included water bodies, and a Woodland Risk Zonation investigation.
  • Lists of actions required to achieve the aims, accompanied by timescales for completion and identification of the organisations who are charged with completing the actions.
  • Reporting and review requirements throughout the period of the plan.