Resilient by Nature: Making climate ready BNG the new normal

On 13th May 2026

This blog was written by Dr Julia Baker, Technical Director of Nature Services at Mott MacDonald.

England’s mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requires developments to create or enhance habitats that will be secured for at least 30 years. That timeframe is long enough for climate change to be a risk BNG delivery. Not just as a gradual shift in weather patterns, but as more frequent extremes including hotter, drier periods with more intense rainfall, stronger storms and a longer duration of winter rains.

That’s why CIEEM’s new guide Resilient by Nature: A Process to Integrate Climate Resilience with Biodiversity Net Gain is timely. It makes the case that climate resilience is not an optional “nice-to-have” for BNG. It is a practical part of good design and long-term stewardship.

Integrating climate resilience into BNG doesn’t require a heavy, specialist modelling exercise for every project. The guide sets out a process that can be proportionate to the scale of each BNG proposal, and it points practitioners toward freely and readily available climate information that can be used to identify risks and select resilience measures.

Why this matters now

BNG is delivered through habitat creation and enhancement, backed by a Habitat Management and Monitoring Plan and secured for at least 30 years. If climate risks are not considered when assessing and designing BNG, habitats could struggle to establish, require repeated remedial works and fail to reach their target type and condition.

A practical process

CIEEM’s guide is designed to help practitioners integrate climate resilience directly within designs and long-term management and monitoring plans for BNG. It introduces a four-step process that can be scaled to the size and extent of the BNG proposals.

The 4-step process comprises:

Obtain climate projections for your BNG site or for the local authority that your BNG site is located within. Use tools like the Met Office’s Local Authority Climate Data Portal which draws on UKCP18 to obtain easy-to-digest climate projections.
Based on the climate projections, identify climate risks to habitat types. For example, heat and drought stress on vegetation, soil erosion from intense rainfall, or “in-combination” risks such as drought-stressed woodland becoming more vulnerable to pests and diseases.
Select resilience measures that buffer BNG habitats from those risks and embed them in the design, aftercare and the 30‑year management and monitoring plan.
Identify how resilient-BNG habitats can provider wider resilient benefits, such as water management or microclimate regulation.

Climate projections are more accessible than most people think

A common misconception is that you need complex modelling to integrate climate resilience within BNG. In practice, many projects can start with quick, accessible climate information to understand direction of travel and the most relevant climate risks. For example, the UK Climate Projections 2018 (UKCP18) are widely referenced, and there are tools like the Met Office’s Local Authority Climate Data Portal where, within a few minutes, users can obtain easy-to-digest climate projections for the local authority that their BNG site is located within.

Practical resilience measures

Here are examples of how climate resilience can be designed in from the start of new woodland creation, and translated into practical BNG design and management actions:

Diversify the woodland structure to avoid single points of failure and improve resilience to pests, disease, drought and wind exposure.
Design for microclimate buffering, for example creating sheltered edges, varied canopy development and phased establishment to reduce heat and water stress during early years
Protect soils and moisture, including careful ground preparation, mulching where appropriate and regularly, and early intervention during drought conditions.
Implement extreme weather plans, enabling BNG maintenance teams to prepare for and respond.
Prioritise water management to retain water during summer heatwaves and enable the flow of flood waters during winter. For example, with rainwater harvesting as a consideration, as well as ponds and scrapes.
Detect pests and diseases: with an increase in pests and diseases being extremely likely over the 30-year maintained period of BNG, include monitoring and controlling pests and disease using the latest technologies within the HMMP.
Monitor the performance of resilience measures: the HMMP contains this monitoring to identify if more, new or difference resilience measures are required. Also monitor how BNG habitats respond to climate change, to make informed decisions.

A key point is that climate resilience for BNG habitats is a comprehensive package of design and management decisions that aim to reduce impacts from multiple climate stressors throughout the year and over time, and enable BNG habitats recover after shocks.

The approach

In discussions about climate resilience, it can be tempting to only consider the selection of species for the BNG habitat. For example, planting drought-tolerant species.

The approach advocated in Resilient by Nature emphasises a broader principle – reducing the severity of climate stressors experienced by BNG habitats by building the conditions for resilience, e.g. water availability, shade and shelter, soil protection, structural diversity and monitoring-led adjustments over time.

Species selection should be a consideration, but over the long-term rather than at design stage. This is so informed decisions can be made from on-the-ground monitoring data about how BNG habitats are responding to climate change, and how well the planned resilience measures are working.

A final thought

The scale of the climate challenge can feel overwhelming. The message from Resilient by Nature is the opposite: we can act now and we can act practically.

Every time we build in resilience measures like shade, soil health, water resilience, structural diversity, having a plan for extreme weather events, being prepared to monitor and control pests and diseases, and so on we’re making progress to what good stewardship looks like for BNG. It’s also what good project delivery looks like: less risk, fewer remedial works and stronger outcomes.

With BNG, let’s make sure the habitats we create today are still delivering in for the long-term.