9 Biodiversity, Green & Blue Infrastructure and Landscapes

9 Biodiversity, Green & Blue Infrastructure and Landscapes Biodiversity 9.1 Biodiversity is in decline across England, which is one of the most nature -depleted countries on Earth, something which Three Rivers has not escaped. This, and growing public awareness of this biodiversity emergency was recognised by the Government’s 2023 Environmental Improvement Plan which stated that there is a “… clear, scientific case and growing public demand for a step change in environment protection and recovery”. 9.2 Whilst much legislation and Government policy that informed the last Local Plan remains valid, other components have evolved, and new laws and guidance created to provide local authorities with the best chance of playing their part in reversing this decline. In terms of legislation, for instance, local authorities now, importantly, have a duty to ‘conserve and enhance’ (instead of simply ‘to have regard to’) biodiversity when exercising its functions, a consequence brought about by the Environment Act 2021. Additionally, the terms ‘nature recovery’ and ‘Biodiversity Net Gain’ have become embedded in the scientific and public vocabulary, both of which have significant planning implications. 9.3 In this context, the primary drivers now influencing the conservation and recovery of nature in Three Rivers include but are not limited to those set out below: • The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended) • Circular 06/2005 Biodiversity and Geological Conservation • NERC 2006 • The Habitats Regulations 2017 (as amended) • The Environment Act 2021 • The Environmental Improvement Plan (2023) • National Planning Policy Framework (2024) and associated Planning Practice Guidance • The Environmental Principles policy statement (2023) • Hertfordshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy 9.4 Together, these bring forward a range of aspirational, policy or mandatory requirements which combine to frame the Local Plan’s policies. 9.5 National policy states that the planning system should contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment by minimising impacts on biodiversity and providing net gains in biodiversity. The National Planning Policy Framework requires local authorities to identify, map and safeguard components of local wildlife -rich habitats and wider ecological networks; and promote the conservation, restoration and enhancement of important habitats and species. Further, it requires that appropriate weight is given not only to protected sites but also to protected features of biodiversity and geological interest in the wider environment. 9.6 In terms of the Local Plan, these drivers can be taken to act together to ensure that local authorities conserve and enhance nature in part by establishing Local Plan policies that ensure that harm to biodiversity within protected sites and, beyond these boundaries, the habitats and species distributed across the rural and built environments is firstly avoided, secondly that harmful impacts are mitigated before they arise, and only as a last resort, that effective compensation is secured for any unavoidable damage that cannot be mitigated. This is the ‘ mitigation hierarchy’ and its use should be evident both in terms of the allocation of development opportunities and subsequent development proposals. Depending on circumstances, each of the three stages can be heavily influenced by differing legislation, policy and best practice guidance and should not be treated lightly. 9.7 More specifically, the Environment Act (2021) promotes positive actions such as the establishment of a Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS), which will aim to increase the quality and size of existing protected areas, buffer harmful impacts from outside and link these together by creating new wildlife sites as stepping -stones or direct physical connections. In turn, the Hertfordshire LNRS contributes to the national Nature Recovery Network (NRN) to begin to deliver the aspirations of the Lawton Report for a network that comprises a ‘ more, bigger, better, better joined ’ biodiversity resource (which in turn can help deliver other societal benefits). 9.8 Biodiversity is an integral part of the character of Three Rivers and contributes to the high quality of life in the area. The district supports a variety of wildlife in habitats as diverse as wetlands, woodlands, grasslands, orchards, heathlands and urban gardens. Conserving and enhancing the diversity of wildlife and habitats in Three Rivers is a strategic objective. 9.9 Further, biodiversity provides numerous benefits, or ecosystem services, for people, such as flood attenuation, softening extremes of temperature and weather, recreation, wellbeing, pollinators and carbon sequestration. Nature conservation and its recovery are therefore not only required but highly desirable. 9.10 In these and other ways, the new local plan has a wide remit to take positive steps towards achieving the ‘step change’ demanded by the Environmental Improvement Plan and provide the framework by which Government exp