The first of two blogs, reflecting on our learning from our role as a Responsible body. Here Associate Director Dr Tim Graham discusses the role Conservation Covenants can play in both preserving heritage, ensuring ecological resilience and connecting our landscape.
Last June, RSK Wilding presented at the British Ecological Society Resilient Landscapes Symposium. We have a real interest and expertise in large-scale and strategic ecological outcomes, and now that also translates to how we are looking to apply Conservation Covenants via our Responsible Body role.
Our interest in Conservation Covenants spreads as far as their potential can; from reinstating or conserving heritage, landscape setting and nature finance. And it’s not all just about Biodiversity Net gain (BNG). We also think Conservation Covenants can help secure more resilient landscapes through better enabling the movement and adaptation of habitats and species at large scales. This may be through allowing movement of protected sites and habitat patches under dynamic scenarios and climate change. While this is still in development and more will be forthcoming later in 2025, we wanted to outline the foundation of our way of thinking.
Conservation Covenants offer a solution that can match large-scale nature recovery and natural capital requirements across different scales, to meet the obligations required of specific land. The regulatory nature of the Responsible Body – holding, agreeing and providing assurance of outcome for the covenant – allows confidence over the long-term.
Three areas stand out for deployment of Conservation Covenants relevant to large-scale nature recovery and resilience:
1. Securing features to optimise resistance – securing those features and practices that will minimise or prevent decline across an ecosystem or population.
2. Ensuring recovery and resilience – enabling the ecosystem and population processes that facilitate their ability to absorb change or return to a normal state after a disturbance or impact. This may involve preventing harmful actions or ensuring relevant actions to improve the state of an ecosystem or species conservation status are implemented.
3. Supporting a wholescape approach –a holistic approach across environmental and cultural systems. Covenants can secure cultural and heritage assets and practices, for example, securing the most productive land for agriculture alongside water quality and nature recovery.
The flexibility of conservation covenants, and how we approach them as a Responsibly Body also lends itself to adaptive management and working with changing future horizons, including the unpredictable nature of climate impacts, embedding new evidence and ways of working, or allowing access to new forms of nature finance.
Watch this space for new developments and applications for conservation covenants in later 2025, or get in touch to discuss your ideas.
