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Mycelia

A tool to help local government ecologists drive better outcomes, with less stress and more control. Includes support for BNG, covering assessment, monitoring, and reporting.

Ecology in local government is vital but overstretched

Enhancing nature is becoming ever more important for Local Authorities, and requires expert ecological input.

Yet most Authorities are struggling to recruit and support enough ecologists.

Biodiversity Net Gain brings new opportunities…

Mandatory BNG could help Local Authorities to generate better local environments, improved outcomes for citizens, and revenue to support their activities.

…But also new responsibilities and risks

The workload of assessing BNG plans, and monitoring them for 30 years, could slow down the planning system.

New duties to manage and enforce BNG means new legal requirements and challenges.

Mycelia helps Local Planning Authorities manage Biodiversity Net Gain

Mycelia helps local government ecologists, and their planning colleagues, with every aspect of the BNG process – from assessment, to monitoring, to reporting.

Developed through collaborative research involving ecologists at more than 40 Local Authorities, it helps local government ecologists drive better outcomes with less stress and more control.

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The Verna team includes ecologists, software engineers, and policy experts who really want to help Local Authorities get better outcomes.

They’re working hard to understand what local government ecologists need, and how their software can support the whole planning system.

We’ve provided feedback and thoughts, which the team have taken on board at each step of the design and it has been a pleasure to collaborate with them on designing a solution.
David Warburton CBiol MRSB FLS MCIEEM, London Borough of Sutton

Key benefits and features

  • Assess planning applications faster, using tools tailor-made to speed up ecology consultations.
  • Ensure BNG delivery, with monitoring data tracked over each case’s 30-year lifespan.
  • Meet reporting obligations, with automated reports for central government, colleagues, and citizens.
  • Drag-and-drop import of Biodiversity Metrics to an easier interface – no need to sift through Metrics in Excel ever again.
  • Automatically checks Biodiversity Metrics and flags up errors and risks.
  • Tracks monitoring responsibilities and requirements for every case, flags overdue actions, and provides evidence trail to support enforcement.
  • Generates summary reports across cases, with pre-made templates for central government and other stakeholders.
  • Based on research with local government ecologists, and co-developed with a working group of seven Local Planning Authorities.

“Are Local Planning Authorities ready to monitor mandatory BNG?”

The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) has published an article on monitoring, based on joint research by Verna and a group of seven Local Planning Authorities.

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I joined Verna after a career in academia and consulting, to build tools that help ecologists apply our expertise faster and better – so that as a profession we can maximise our positive impact on nature and the environment.
Dr Mikael Forup MCIEEM, Verna’s Director of Ecology

Book a demo

We’ll try to understand your priorities, and explore whether or not Mycelia would meet your needs.