How can building a city be good for nature?

Forest City includes a 12,000-acre nature reserve — the single largest land-based nature reserve in England. Existing woodland, ancient hedgerows and woodland soil are preserved; lost ponds and wetlands are restored; and beavers, storks and otters are reintroduced to a landscape that was once theirs.

Unlike the vague biodiversity promises attached to most developments, these standards are legally enforceable through Nature Covenants agreed with Natural England — so we can be held to account in law if we miss them.