Integrating people and place into policy: recognising cultural values of nature and lived places for Biodiversity Net Gain

This paper examines England's Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) policy and its potential for place-based adaptation in Scotland and beyond. BNG, the market mechanism for ensuring biodiversity is not lost through development, is a highly significant but controversial policy which risks commodifying nature and overlooking local social and cultural values. This paper uses case study evidence to direct policymakers towards models for overcoming these risks and helps to envision a cultural, ecological, and place-based future for BNG.

We argue that BNG's focus on tradeable biodiversity units fails to capture place-specific relationships between communities and nature, creating distributive justice issues when biodiversity loss in one area affecting certain communities is offset by gains benefiting different communities. Drawing on Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts (SHAPE) insights, we advocate for place-sensitive approaches integrating diverse values beyond ecological metrics.

We present future visioning as a co-creation method for locally grounded nature recovery policies and examine Switzerland's regional biodiversity offsetting model as an alternative place-based approach. For Scotland's developing framework, we recommend expanding biodiversity metrics to include social and cultural values, strengthening local delivery requirements, and ensuring strategic alignment with social justice agendas.

Key themes

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), place-based values, biodiversity, offsetting, local communities, cultural landscape values, social justice, nature recovery, policy

Dr. Flurina Wartmann is a Senior Lecturer / Associate Professor at the University of Aberdeen and holds a PhD from the University of Zurich. Her research focuses on place-based values and the social dimensions of nature recovery across the UK and Switzerland. She held positions at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, the University of Edinburgh, and recently completed a Fellowship at Oxford's Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery on the political aesthetics of nature recovery.

Dr Emma Cary completed her doctoral research on decision-making in nature recovery and ecological restoration projects. She holds an MSc in Conservation Biology and a MA(Hons) in Social Anthropology. With extensive experience across the policy and conservation sectors, her research interests include environmental decision-making processes, stakeholder engagement in conservation, and the intersection of policy and practice in ecological restoration.