The Government will publish guidance alongside this response on how BNG and nutrient mitigation can be stacked and how they can be combined with other schemes. This first phase of guidance will run until March 2025.

Land managers will be able to sell both biodiversity units and nutrient credits from the same nature-based intervention, for example the creation or enhancement of a wetland or a woodland on the same parcel of land.

Land managers should not sell credits for other ecosystem services (such as carbon credits) from the same nature-based intervention if they are also selling biodiversity units and/or nutrient credits.

Biodiversity units may be generated on top of an existing obligation or grant payment if the land manager is able to further enhance a habitat and can establish a clear and verifiable baseline from what the existing payment or obligation has achieved. See also the ‘Staged sales’ section earlier in Part 3.

There can also be specific synergies between mitigation measures required by appropriate assessments under the Habitat Regulations and biodiversity gains required to meet the biodiversity gain objective. For instance, in relation to nutrient mitigation schemes, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has produced guidance on how land managers can combine biodiversity units and nutrient credits, and sell them alongside other environmental payments: Combining environmental payments: biodiversity net gain (BNG) and nutrient mitigation.