Compliance

Aligned with UK environmental frameworks

A practical overview of the regulations and standards JoinEcoGrow's record-keeping is shaped around. Useful for council, parks, ecology, and sustainability reviewers asking how the platform fits their statutory and operational context.

Statutory frameworks

The UK statutes that drive most of the new evidence and reporting expectations on councils and public bodies for trees and green assets.

England — statutory since 12 February 2024

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)

Most planning applications in England must now demonstrate at least a 10% net gain in biodiversity over the pre-development baseline, measured against the DEFRA Statutory Biodiversity Metric, and maintained for a minimum of 30 years.

How JoinEcoGrow supports it

Structured tree and habitat records aligned to BNG-style baseline and post-intervention surveys
Time-stamped, GPS-linked field evidence to support the 30-year monitoring requirement
Reviewer-friendly exports to feed into the BNG metric and condition-monitoring reports

Reference: Defra: Statutory biodiversity metric

Wales — applies to all public authorities (including Cardiff Council)

Section 6 — Environment (Wales) Act 2016

Welsh public bodies have a statutory duty to "seek to maintain and enhance biodiversity" in the exercise of their functions, and must publish a plan and report on actions every three years.

How JoinEcoGrow supports it

Audit-ready records that evidence biodiversity-enhancement actions across managed sites
Per-site condition history to support the three-yearly Section 6 reporting cycle
Cardiff-focused product context: this is the Welsh framework Cardiff Council operates under

Reference: Welsh Government: Section 6 duty guidance

England — sets the wider statutory framework

Environment Act 2021

Establishes legally binding environmental targets, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), and the requirements that councils now meet through BNG, Local Nature Recovery Strategies, and Species Conservation Strategies.

How JoinEcoGrow supports it

Records and outputs designed to feed into the same evidence pipelines councils use for Environment Act obligations
Traceable record history that supports OEP-style oversight expectations

Reference: Defra: Environment Act 2021 guide

England — every "responsible authority" (council/combined authority) produces one

Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS)

LNRSs map current habitats and identify the most important opportunities for nature recovery in a local area. They feed BNG, planning decisions, and how councils prioritise green-asset investment.

How JoinEcoGrow supports it

Site-level tree and green-asset records that align to LNRS habitat categories
Geospatial outputs that can be aggregated to inform local LNRS habitat maps
Field-capture workflow built for the type of evidence LNRS work depends on

Reference: Natural England: Local Nature Recovery Strategies

Industry standards and methodologies

The non-statutory standards UK arboriculturists and tree officers actually work with day-to-day.

UK — "Trees in relation to design, demolition and construction"

BS 5837:2012

The British Standard used in essentially every planning application that involves trees: defines tree categorisation (A/B/C/U), Root Protection Areas, Arboricultural Impact Assessments, and method statements.

How JoinEcoGrow supports it

Structured per-tree records that include the attributes BS 5837 surveys depend on
Photo and location evidence that can be referenced in tree constraints plans and AIAs
Audit history supporting the assumptions a BS 5837 report makes about a site

UK — Capital Asset Value for Amenity Trees (LTOA / endorsed by LGA)

CAVAT

A widely adopted method for valuing trees as council capital assets — used in compensation claims, asset registers, and to support the case for green-asset investment.

How JoinEcoGrow supports it

Per-tree records with the dimensional and condition data that CAVAT calculations require
Aggregated views suitable for a council-wide CAVAT-driven asset value summary
Change history that lets a council track total amenity-tree asset value over time

Reference: London Tree Officers Association: CAVAT

International — used widely across UK city tree strategies (Cardiff included)

i-Tree

A suite of tools (i-Tree Eco, i-Tree Canopy) that quantifies the environmental and economic benefits of trees: carbon storage, air-pollutant removal, stormwater attenuation, and amenity value.

How JoinEcoGrow supports it

Field records compatible with the i-Tree input data structure
Outputs that can be combined with i-Tree benefit factors to support tree-strategy reporting
Carbon and condition fields aligned to the data i-Tree assessments depend on

Reference: i-Tree tools

JoinEcoGrow supports record-keeping, not statutory advice.

JoinEcoGrow provides structured workflows and reviewer-friendly outputs aligned with the frameworks above. Formal statutory advice on biodiversity, planning conditions, BS 5837 categorisation, BNG metric calculations, or environmental reporting must continue to come from accredited ecology consultants, qualified arboriculturists, and your council's planning and sustainability officers.

Next step

Talk through how this maps to your team

A 15-minute briefing covers your specific BNG, Section 6, or LNRS context.

Book a 15-minute briefing

Statutory frameworks

The UK statutes that drive most of the new evidence and reporting expectations on councils and public bodies for trees and green assets.

England — statutory since 12 February 2024

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)

How JoinEcoGrow supports it

Structured tree and habitat records aligned to BNG-style baseline and post-intervention surveys
Time-stamped, GPS-linked field evidence to support the 30-year monitoring requirement
Reviewer-friendly exports to feed into the BNG metric and condition-monitoring reports

Reference: Defra: Statutory biodiversity metric

Wales — applies to all public authorities (including Cardiff Council)

Section 6 — Environment (Wales) Act 2016

Welsh public bodies have a statutory duty to "seek to maintain and enhance biodiversity" in the exercise of their functions, and must publish a plan and report on actions every three years.

How JoinEcoGrow supports it

Audit-ready records that evidence biodiversity-enhancement actions across managed sites
Per-site condition history to support the three-yearly Section 6 reporting cycle
Cardiff-focused product context: this is the Welsh framework Cardiff Council operates under

Reference: Welsh Government: Section 6 duty guidance

England — sets the wider statutory framework

Environment Act 2021

How JoinEcoGrow supports it

Records and outputs designed to feed into the same evidence pipelines councils use for Environment Act obligations
Traceable record history that supports OEP-style oversight expectations

Reference: Defra: Environment Act 2021 guide

England — every "responsible authority" (council/combined authority) produces one

Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS)

LNRSs map current habitats and identify the most important opportunities for nature recovery in a local area. They feed BNG, planning decisions, and how councils prioritise green-asset investment.

How JoinEcoGrow supports it

Site-level tree and green-asset records that align to LNRS habitat categories
Geospatial outputs that can be aggregated to inform local LNRS habitat maps
Field-capture workflow built for the type of evidence LNRS work depends on

Reference: Natural England: Local Nature Recovery Strategies

Industry standards and methodologies

The non-statutory standards UK arboriculturists and tree officers actually work with day-to-day.

UK — "Trees in relation to design, demolition and construction"

BS 5837:2012

How JoinEcoGrow supports it

Structured per-tree records that include the attributes BS 5837 surveys depend on
Photo and location evidence that can be referenced in tree constraints plans and AIAs
Audit history supporting the assumptions a BS 5837 report makes about a site

UK — Capital Asset Value for Amenity Trees (LTOA / endorsed by LGA)

CAVAT

A widely adopted method for valuing trees as council capital assets — used in compensation claims, asset registers, and to support the case for green-asset investment.

How JoinEcoGrow supports it

Per-tree records with the dimensional and condition data that CAVAT calculations require
Aggregated views suitable for a council-wide CAVAT-driven asset value summary
Change history that lets a council track total amenity-tree asset value over time

Reference: London Tree Officers Association: CAVAT

International — used widely across UK city tree strategies (Cardiff included)

i-Tree

A suite of tools (i-Tree Eco, i-Tree Canopy) that quantifies the environmental and economic benefits of trees: carbon storage, air-pollutant removal, stormwater attenuation, and amenity value.

How JoinEcoGrow supports it

Field records compatible with the i-Tree input data structure
Outputs that can be combined with i-Tree benefit factors to support tree-strategy reporting
Carbon and condition fields aligned to the data i-Tree assessments depend on

Reference: i-Tree tools