Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Nature Markets and Biodiversity Offsetting: Mandatory and Voluntary Mechanisms, Biodiversity Net Gain, Market Rules including Stacking, Additionality and Double Funding, Legal and Policy Frameworks, Standards, Risks and Future Direction

Published by a LexisNexis Environment expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note sets out the present landscape for biodiversity offsetting together with mandatory and voluntary nature markets. It covers what biodiversity offsetting entails, the defining features of nature markets, drivers for participants, market rules, the ‘stacking’ of multiple nature benefits, and the anticipated future direction of biodiversity offsets and nature markets.

Overview

What is biodiversity offsetting?

Biodiversity offsetting is the means by which organisations carry out or finance environmentally restorative initiatives to balance out the harm they cause, whether directly or indirectly, to biodiversity through their operations and across their value chains.

Biodiversity offsetting under planning laws

Safeguarding, improving and ‘offsetting’ biodiversity effects has been entwined with the English planning system since before 2006, when the former Planning Policy Statement 9 (now incorporated into the National Planning Policy Framework) encouraged planning authorities to explore ways of maintaining, restoring or adding to networks of natural habitats and other landscape features. That guidance evolved into obligations on developers to offset their biodiversity impacts in the 2012 and 2018 National Planning Policy Frameworks. Those requirements were later set in law as biodiversity net gain under the Environment Act 2021. For more information, see Practice Note: Biodiversity net gain in England...

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Alexa Culver

RSK Wilding

Alexa is an experienced general counsel, lawyer, board member and commercial director. Alexa is a Member of the College of Experts at the Office for Environmental Protection and recognised by the ENDs Report as one of the most impactful environmental lawyers of 2023 and 2025. As a lawyer with over 18 years' experience working on land, planning, environmental and green finance projects, Alexa works with corporates, developers, landowners and managers, ecologists and government designing land-based legal structures that maximise natural capital and social value....

Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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