Responding to the Government's proposal to introduce biodiversity offsetting, the NFU said: "Binding land to a specific management regime 'in perpetuity' is a significant undertaking that will require very considerable and matching assurance as to income and liability."
This practice of biodiversity offsetting would see developers offset the environmental impact of their development by paying farmers or landowners to provide new habitats for wildlife.
But the NFU commented: "One of the biggest barriers to land coming forward for biodiversity offsetting is the green paper's assumption that land will be given over to biodiversity in perpetuity."
It added that much more work needs to be done before the Government makes any decision.
