Castle Howard's eco-move is welcome - but there may be a catch: Stuart Minting

The 30-year plan the estate has signed up for is a significant commitment.

Alongside potential headline-grabbing results such as the reintroduction of beavers, its proponents say the project also has the potential to enhance the agricultural productivity of farmland in the surrounding area by creating habitats where pollinators can thrive.

While Bog Hall Habitat Bank site will form part of Environment Bank’s national network of habitat banks to generate biodiversity units that developers can buy to satisfy biodiversity net gain planning requirements, the ecological benefits will start before any of the units are sold.

Not only will the scheme provide long-term income opportunities to help maintain the estate, but a sustainable steam of funding to enhance habitats.

However, there’s clearly potential for differences between what Environment Bank wants to achieve at the site and the approach the estate wants to pursue.

There’s also the danger that buying habitat bank units will be an easy option for councils and developers to look towards when negotiating housing schemes in rural areas.

One study in 2015 highlighted how comparing biodiversity levels at a development site with a habitat bank could present difficulties.

In addition, with land prices being factored into the price of habitat bank unit credits, developers could effectively be incentivised to offset ecologically harmful projects at locations with cheaper land prices rather than restoring biodiversity in the area they are building on.

The requirement for developers to deliver a minimum ten per cent biodiversity uplift associated with their sites came into effect earlier this year. Potential gains at land banks could and has already been used to justify ecological damage from developments at designated wildlife havens. To maintain communities in deeply rural areas such as the Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors and Yorkshire Wolds a supply of new and suitable housing for families and young people is needed, so councillors must not get blinded by generous biodiversity uplifts elsewhere.