WildKnowledge
How UK nature data actually fits together.
Plenty of resources explain what Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) legally requires: GOV.UK, the Planning Advisory Service, CIEEM, UKGBC. Almost none explain how the underlying datasets relate to, differ from, and sometimes contradict each other, or how the legal and data picture shifts across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
WildKnowledge is a first attempt to fill that gap. It aims to be an overlay between the statutory sources and the practitioner: translating dataset methodology and legal governance nuances into plain, maybe opinionated, practically useful explanation. I'll link to the statutory source material itself but try not to duplicate it.
Who it's for
Ecologists, local planning authorities, developers, and local nature groups who need to understand not just what the rules are, but why the data behaves the way it does.
How it's built
WildKnowledge is built and maintained as part of a broader project called WildStack that started as a personal attempt to learn about this field through making an automated BNG desk-based baseline assessment platform. We treat certain datasets in certain ways for good reasons, and this is where we explain that reasoning in the open. It is a distinct, standalone resource designed to be genuinely useful in its own right.
How to read it
Every page follows one of two repeatable shapes:
- Topic Pages explain a legal framework or a concept — The Biodiversity Gain Hierarchy, What is a Local Nature Recovery Strategy?
- Data Source Profiles explain a single dataset: what it is, how it's made, and how it compares to the datasets it's often confused with.
Many pages end with WildStack's take: a specific, opinionated observation, not a neutral summary. We tell you where we think common practice gets it wrong.
Three principles worth knowing up front
- England-first, nation-aware. Full depth on England; other nations appear as inline asides only where the difference is real. It's starting this way just because I haven't had time to map all of Great Britain, though I want to
- We explain methodology, we don't republish content. Every source is linked, never reproduced.
- "Last updated", not "guaranteed current". Every page carries a review date. There is no freshness SLA yet — check the primary source before you rely on anything time-sensitive.
Start browsing from the sidebar, or jump to Legal Frameworks, Data Sources, or Nature & Climate Context.