Suffolk Biodiversity Action Plan and Planning

The Suffolk Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) was the county’s framework for identifying and protecting priority species and habitats. While the BAP has been largely superseded as a statutory policy framework – replaced by stronger national and local mechanisms including the biodiversity duty, mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain, and the emerging Suffolk Local Nature Recovery Strategy – it remains a useful reference for understanding the ecological context of development sites in Suffolk.

The National Planning Policy Framework requires local planning authorities to contribute to and enhance the natural environment. Suffolk’s priority species and habitats remain material considerations in the planning process, even where specific BAP policy references have been updated.

Priority species and habitats: For a full list of Suffolk’s priority species and habitats, including guidance on which species are associated with each habitat type, visit Suffolk’s Priority Species or Suffolk’s Priority Habitats on the Suffolk’s Wildlife pages.

Archived documents: The following documents were produced by the Suffolk Biodiversity Partnership Planning Support Group. They are retained here for reference, but predate current legislation and guidance and should not be relied upon as current policy.

• Priority species in the planning process – flowchart (published 2012)
• Suffolk Planning Biodiversity Action Plan (published May 2012)