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Constructive Voices Radio The conversation is building
Kate is an ecologist with 23 years experience and is a Chartered Environmentalist. Kate is one of the leads within AtkinsRéalis’ Ecology Practice on the subject of BNG and is a subject matter expert in nature-based carbon removals and how nature-based solutions can bring both these elements together in a nature-positive way.
Kate has worked on projects involving the concept of biodiversity offsetting since 2013, when she worked on HS2 Phase 1 ‘No Net Loss’ approach. She is part of a team that provides strategic advice to Highways England on the topic of Biodiversity Net Gain and has worked with housing developer Redrow, since 2017, providing them with strategic and technical advice on how to take forward their vision of providing Biodiversity Net Gain, on all their new developments.
Dr. Kate Vicent wrote a joint article with Redrow on the subject of housing developments and BNG, which was published in CIEEM’s InPractice magazine. This article was subsequently referenced within the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) briefing note on BNG, published in October 2019.
Kate has more recently worked with EA on how to include and take account of BNG costings in their business cases on their Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management projects. This will ensure there is a budget for design, delivery and maintenance and monitoring for BNG in all future projects. Kate often collaborates across environmental disciplines and recently project managed some innovative and industry-leading work on bringing BNG and SuDs together and developing funding models to make this happen.
Kate’s first memory of being interested in nature was when she was 6 years old and as part of her school’s show and tell, she took in some hazel nuts that she had found in her grandparents’ garden.
She had never seen anything like them before and she was hooked. Weekend nature walks then became common place and after getting some binoculars at the age of seven, she regularly went on local birdwatching trips with her dad, where she would record all the birds she had seen.
Their ID skills developed together until Kate, in her early teens, could identify many more birds than her dad and she became the teacher. Her passion for nature continued on into university. After completing her first degree in Environmental Biology, her love for ornithology peaked when she completed a PhD in the study of urban house sparrow decline.
To this day she holds a very special affection for these birds and whenever she sees them or hears their cheeky chirp, it makes her smile.
