Managing risks while protecting biodiversity

We’re creating a legal framework for Kent Wildlife Trust as they implement their ash dieback policy.

Ash dieback, a fungal disease from East Asia, is causing huge problems across Britain. But, while a single focus on health and safety might suggest that all diseased trees should be cut down, there is a real benefit in leaving as many of the trees as possible in situ from an ecological point of view.

Adopting this policy, however, brought its own set of challenges so Kent Wildlife Trust approached us at Anthony Collins (AC) to help them define and mitigate the risks.

Taking a natural approach

A dying tree provides a home for all sorts of bugs, mushrooms and moss which was why Kent Wildlife Trust was keen to protect biodiversity and conserve various plant species in the area. They knew removing too many trees would be detrimental to the wider ecosystem.

But Kent Wildlife Trust had to show they had also considered the implications of leaving diseased trees in place.

We produced a report reviewing the main concerns and issues from multiple perspectives including potential liabilities for personal injury relating to known diseased and dying trees, legal risks over access rights on neighbouring landowners’ land and risks relating to public highways.

Going deeper

We also started drilling down into charity law and regulations. Kent Wildlife Trust must show its decisions are made in keeping with its charitable purpose and for the benefit of the public – by allowing people to still enjoy nature.    

We outlined their health and safety obligations to employees and volunteers but also any visitors to the area. In addition, we considered aspects of property law and planning.   

Sharing best practice

Kent Wildlife Trust is part of a network of other independently governed wildlife trusts all trying to cope with ash dieback across the country and we agreed our work could be shared amongst these other Wildlife Trusts to provide a collective defensible framework for dealing with the multiple levels of highly context-specific risks in question.

Each situation will be different according to the different types of land but the work we’ve done will help other trusts weigh the legal risks they need to consider against a standardised decision-making framework.

Our wide range of expertise enabled us to provide specialists in many different areas of law. We didn’t just approach the issue from a single point of view. Our projects team led the case, while other AC experts also provided advice on the local authority, commercial, health and safety, property, planning and charity governance aspects.

Looking to the future

Although ash dieback is not a problem that can be solved, Kent Wildlife Trust can now continue to make a positive environmental impact by leaving the trees in place, where feasible. Even in the face of something inherently harmful, they can continue to be committed to their nature conservation mission.    

And by addressing all the risks in the policy, we’ve given Kent Wildlife Trust the confidence to make informed decisions on a site-by-site basis, with the legal backup to face any challenges if needed.   

“Our role was to help Kent Wildlife Trust protect the biodiversity of the area as much as possible in the face of a devastating disease and to make sure their decisions are made in a way which considers the public and the charity, as well as the natural environment and wildlife.”  Natalie Barbosa, senior associate, Anthony Collins