Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016

A biodiversity stewardship agreement has effect from a day, or on the happening of an event, specified in the agreement.

A biodiversity stewardship agreement has effect in perpetuity, unless—

it is terminated by consent of the Minister and all the owners (for the time being) of the biodiversity stewardship site concerned, or

it is terminated by the Minister, without the consent of the owners, and that termination is authorised by this Act.

The Minister must not consent to the termination of a biodiversity stewardship agreement unless such measures as may be required by the Minister are taken by the owner of the biodiversity stewardship site to offset any negative impact of the termination on the biodiversity values protected by the agreement. This subsection does not apply if voluntary termination of the agreement is permitted under this section.

For the purposes of subsection (3), the required measures may include one or more of the following—

the cancellation of biodiversity credits created in relation to the biodiversity stewardship site,

the retirement of biodiversity credits created in relation to another biodiversity stewardship site,

entering into a biodiversity stewardship agreement for the purpose of establishing another biodiversity stewardship site.

The Minister must consent to the termination of a biodiversity stewardship agreement on the request of the owner of the biodiversity stewardship site if voluntary termination of the agreement is permitted under this section.

For the purposes of this section, voluntary termination of a biodiversity stewardship agreement is permitted only if the owner of the biodiversity stewardship site requests the termination of the agreement within 3 months after it is entered into, or after the expiry of 5 years after the agreement has been entered into, and at the time of termination—

no biodiversity credits have been created in respect of the biodiversity stewardship site, or

in a case where biodiversity credits have been created (and whether or not transferred)—none of the credits created have been retired and all the credits are cancelled by the Environment Agency Head with the consent of the holder of the credits.

A request for the consent of the Minister to the termination of a biodiversity stewardship agreement is to be made by application of the owner of the site—

in the form approved by the Minister and accompanied by the information required by that form, and

accompanied by a fee prescribed by the regulations.