Adonis Blue Spreads its Wings to support Biodiversity Net Gain

Vincent Ganley, Managing Director of Adonis Blue Environmental Consultancy, talks to Sarah Dale about how they’re supporting businesses to invest in nature.

The Adonis Blue butterfly is the rarest of the blue butterflies in the UK and the protected species is found in sunny, south-facing grassland in southern England.

The Adonis Blue is also the mascot of Kent Wildlife Trust Group and namesake of Adonis Blue Environmental Consultancy, a subsidiary of Kent Wildlife Trust. The ecological consultancy has been providing in depth ecological and land management advice since the 1990s. They continue to return all profits – which have risen from £100,000 in its first year to more than £1 million this year – to nature conservation work in Kent.

It was rebranded in July from Kent Wildlife Trust Consultancy Services to acknowledge its services expanding beyond Kent. The organisation’s services include ecological and protected species surveys, Biodiversity Net Gain services, natural capital and nature-based solutions, marine and coastal services and strategic research.

Vincent Ganley, a graduate in geography and environmental management who previously worked at Kew Gardens, joined Kent Wildlife Trust 10 years ago and became Managing Director of its subsidiary consultancy services in 2018 nearly 20 years after its creation by team members Anne and Neil, who still work there today!

“Adonis shares the mission and values of the Trust and its primary focus is Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG),” he said.

From January 2024, developers in England will be legally required to deliver at least 10% Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) on new housing, industrial or commercial developments. This means that each development must leave nature in a better state than it was found by creating or improving wildlife habitats and maintaining them for 30 years. This should be delivered on site where possible but if it isn’t, developers can offset their BNG by paying nearby landowners to deliver habitat creation on their land.

“A massive focus of the consultancy is to share our deep understanding of Biodiversity Net Gain. We then provide solutions from site survey to unit sale ensuring high integrity best practise throughout and maximising benefits for nature to align with the values of the wildlife trust,” he said.

“We continue to do our work – typical ecology work with species that are significantly important to protect – and have extended our services to include science-based research to underpin our BNG work.

“We are also one of the only consultancies to carry out marine and coastal work and can also conduct assessments of land for carbon.”

They hope that later this year, the organisation, which has a team of 20 consultants, will be promoting a register which lists all the land opportunities available for BNG.

“All pieces of land available for offset from specific nature-friendly landowners will be on the register,” said Vincent.

“That register is a significant piece of work. It’s not just about BNG, it’s also looking at all the ecological services in land holdings –water quality, carbon, nutrient neutrality.”

Adonis Blue Environmental is working hand in hand with Kent Wildlife Trust and RSPB.

“We have access to significant amounts of data and tools to substantiate knowns in conservation,” he added.

“A massive positive for anyone taking up our service is they know we have strong conservation objectives.”

Everyone who works for the organisation has conservation ecology and land management skills and all the profits from the organisation are directed back into work that extends the local nature recovery strategy.

“The money is reinvested into areas that we work in to protect species and introduce species,” he added.

“We also have plans in place to introduce a lab on site in the next couple of years.

“Our team has expertise in every kind of habitat and species. They are experienced working with businesses, landowners and infrastructure and have completed quite a catalogue of work supporting organisations and businesses to develop BNG.

“We have significant experience working with spatial tools, technological analysis using drones and we are going into AI with a programme to underpin this.”

Examples of their work include partnering with HS2 on its infrastructure biodiversity action plan and working with landowners to create coastal saltmarsh habitats that store carbon and support abundant wildlife.

Find out more at www.adonisblueenvironmental.org.uk

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