For natural (or ‘woodland’ or ‘green’) burials, you may already have an area set aside in the cemetery.

If you permit a natural burial in the normal part of the cemetery, the only difference is likely to be the nature of the coffin and possibly a memorial in the form of some type of planting. These will merely require appropriate burial types, and extra memorial types with relevant documents in terms of maintenance. There may also be a tendency to have more family arranged funerals rather than a funeral director.

For set aside natural areas, there are some additional factors to consider. For example, and this list is by no means exhaustive:

Permanent memorials on the graves are unlikely to be permitted, but if you allow trees or bushes these should be recorded as memorials in the normal way in order to grant permission and record ownership responsibilities.

Plaque memorials may also be allowed on a memorial wall, much as for cremated remains. These will need cross-referencing to the burial sites but should be allocated a memorial space as the ‘grave number’.

If grave markers are used for otherwise unmarked graves, make sure these are recorded as a reference in the burial entry.

If temporary wooden memorials are allowed, these can be granted with very short approval periods.

If you issue grants of exclusive rights for unspecified grave numbers, as a purchase of ‘a space’ somewhere in the cemetery, you can use a different set of virtual grave numbers and edit later when the actual grave site is known.