Our approach to nature

Protecting the environment  is a fundamental part of our decision–making. 

You can read more about our approach to the environment and our Environmental Sustainability Strategy here:

This factsheet provides more detail on how  we’ll protect nature and deliver biodiversity net gain.

Our approach to nature

Biodiversity is the variety of life and includes all plants and animals and the habitats they live in. It also provides essential services for people, including carbon storage, clean air  and food. One of our Environmental Sustainability Strategy pillars is to build a railway that:

‘supports a thriving and diverse natural environment; through ensuring the  maintenance of healthy ecosystems  (wildlife, habitats, soil, land and water  resources)’ 

This means developing our proposals in a way that protects, creates, enhances and restores  habitats to benefit a larger interconnected

green network. As part of this approach, the  project will provide a 10% biodiversity net gain
- which means EWR will have a measurably  positive impact on biodiversity compared to  what was there before.

Understanding existing nature

Our ecologists and biodiversity specialists have a vital role in shaping the design of our  project and we are continuing to develop a comprehensive understanding of the  ecological characteristics of the areas crossed by the proposed railway. We have used this  knowledge to inform the proposed route so  that, wherever possible, it avoids important  habitats and features. 

Desk-based studies and physical surveys have taken place over the last few years and will  continue during design development to give us a detailed understanding of the current  environmental conditions. 

Surveys consider different wildlife groups,  including bats and birds, as well as protected  species such as otters, water voles and  badgers. Additionally, habitats including trees, hedgerows and watercourses are assessed. We are also meeting with local council officers  and governmental and non-governmental  organisations to discuss our proposals. This  engagement and dialogue will continue as the  design develops to help us to build a base of  local knowledge, concerns and opportunities to inform our assessment of impacts and the  development of our proposals. 

Protecting nature

When developing our designs, we seek to avoid any impacts to natural features in the first  place. This can involve changing the design or  timing of works for example. If we are unable to avoid a potential impact we consider measures to reduce and minimise it, for example by  improving water quality from drainage outfalls  to reduce impacts to aquatic ecosystems.

Where minimisation cannot fully remove the  impacts, restoration is considered. This involves re-establishing a feature or ecosystem, bringing it back to its original state or to a  healthy state close to the original. If residual  adverse effects remain after appropriate  avoidance, minimisation and restoration  measures have been taken, compensatory  offsetting measures would be required as a last resort.

Enhancing biodiversity

As part of our proposals, we are committed to delivering overall benefits to nature through a process called biodiversity net gain  (BNG). BNG is about leaving biodiversity in a  measurably better state after a development  than before, including creating more or  better-quality habitats. We will identify a BNG baseline as part of the environmental surveys  we are undertaking. This baseline will help us  understand what we need to do to achieve our commitment of 10% BNG across the project.

To achieve BNG in practice, we will design  habitat creation and enhancements based on sound ecological principles. These will be  determined by the area of habitat we could  create and its potential variety of species, the rarity of the habitat and its strategic  significance (how much it would contribute to local nature conservation objectives).  Climate resilience is also an important factor that we will consider in the design, along with immediate aftercare and long-term  management of BNG habitats. 

The wildlife-rich habitats we would seek to  create will either be within the boundary of our proposals or delivered through working off-site in partnership with different landowners and  BNG providers. To help identify and explore  these opportunities to achieve BNG we will work with local and regional stakeholders as we continue to develop our proposals.