Amber Butler

My current research focuses on addressing the social disconnect in the Treasury Green Book’s guidance for best practice under Biodiversity Net Gain. I am engaging with local stakeholders to understand the importance of natural spaces to their place-based wellbeing and the impact of housing developments and offsetting projects on the fair distribution of the cultural services that natural capital and biodiversity provide. Development and offsetting projects can affect local access to these benefits by relocating biodiversity away from the local people and disturbing the cultural, social and emotional experiences therein. It is, therefore, imperative that developers understand full scope of these consequences when implementing offsets under Biodiversity Net Gain.