Protected Species Licensing | Baker Consultants

Many developments have impacts upon species that are protected by law, whether it be at a European or domestic UK level.

Most statutes allow for the legal protection to be circumvented under a licensing regime.

At the European level, our in-house team of ecology consultants has a wealth of practical experience of working with great crested newts, bats, dormice, reptiles, crayfish, and otters, and the team is able to secure European Protected Species Licenses (EPSL) that will facilitate development. In order to gain an EPSL, three strict legal tests have to be met and Baker Consultants is experienced in helping clients to meet these tests; one of which is ecological in nature. Andrew Baker has considerable expertise in nature conservation law and, in fact, has taught species protection law to many of the regulators’ species licensing teams.

Once the license has been secured, we have the background and experience to carry out the required mitigation works whether it be great crested newt translocation, habitat creation, bat exclusions or supervision of demolition works.

Baker Consultants’ team is also experienced in badger mitigation and the associated licensing process. Badger setts are protected under the Badger Act 1992, which states that a sett is protected where there are signs of current use. Baker Consultants now use heat trigger cameras as a means of proving current use. By using photographic evidence, we have been able to prove to Natural England’s satisfaction that setts were abandoned and, therefore, could be excluded without the need for a license (see our Network Rail case study on remote monitoring of a badger set).

Protected Species Licensing

Why Baker Consultants?

Baker Consultants Ltd is driven by a thirst for new techniques to make our profession better, an obsession with the intricacies of nature conservation law, planning policy and best practice and how all these aspects affect our clients. We are a small highly effective team, used to remote working and delivering robust commercial advice at all points of a project’s timeline. We don’t just do ecological surveys, we see any project through the entire process through public inquiries if necessary and onto the construction phase.

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