UK-based Oxygen Conservation has acquired two large Scottish estates totalling 23,000 acres to develop a major rewilding project, using a £20.6 million bank loan in what’s being called Britain’s largest-ever nature-based commercial debt deal.
The transaction, supported by the 25-year loan agreement from the UK branch of Dutch financial Triodos, sees Oxygen Conservation acquire 11,390 acres from the Buccleuch Estate, situated on Langholm Moor near the English-Scottish border, and 11,610 acres in Invergeldie in Perthshire.
No further details of the agreement were published.
Devon-headquartered Oxygen Conservation is aiming to generate a positive economic return by undertaking various projects such as species reintroduction, regenerative agriculture, renewable energy generation, sustainable housing, eco-tourism, and carbon sequestration through woodland and peatland restoration.
“It’s only by creating these types of funding packages and frameworks with respected financial institutions that people can have the confidence to allow private finance to flow into natural capital at scale – thereby funding the protection of the natural world,” said Oxygen Managing Director Rich Stockdale.
“Oxygen Conservation is pioneering a brand-new approach to protecting and restoring nature and its commitment to deliver positive environmental and social impact, while generating a sustainable financial return, very much aligns with our own values as a bank,” added Bevis Watts, CEO of Triodos Bank UK.
These acquisitions add to Oxygen’s growing portfolio of land, which includes the Leighon Estate in Dartmoor, Wood Advent Farm in Exmoor, Esgair Arth, near Aberaeron in Wales, Swineley in the Yorkshire Dales, and a stretch of the Firth of Tay near Dundee.
Founded in 2021, the company is working to generate returns through protecting and improving natural assets, with the overarching goal of helping to tackle climate change and the biodiversity crisis.
Triodos UK earlier this year loaned £3.75 mln to a British rewilding charity seeking to acquire land to developing nature reserves, in what the bank called the first commercial debt deal of its kind in the country.
This loan went to charity Heal, founded in 2020, which has used the funds towards buying land for its first rewilding project in Somerset.
Separately, researchers have calculated that major European cities could help rewild hundreds of thousands of hectares of land by adopting plant-based diets.
Joseph Poore, director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Food Sustainability Analytics at Oxford University, revealed the findings on Wednesday during a webinar, using Edinburgh and Stockholm as examples.
“Should Edinburgh embrace plant-based diets, a massive 232,000 hectares of land could be rewilded, an area the size of the Lake District National Park; emissions savings would be equivalent to removing 532,000 cars from the streets,” campaign group Plant Based Treaty said in an email.
“If Stockholm were to follow suit, an additional 176,000 hectares of land could be rewilded, an area the size of Sarek National Park, and the emissions reduction would match taking 935,000 cars off the road.”
According to the group, every person that adopts a vegan diet could spare 4,700 square metres of land, which would provide habitats for five birds, 15 mammals, 20 reptiles, 100 amphibians, and absorb 150 tonnes of CO2 into plants and soil.
The Plant Based Treaty is modelled on the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and inspired by treaties that have addressed the threats of ozone layer depletion and nuclear weapons. Since its launch in August 2021, the initiative has received support from 85,000 individual endorsers, 5 Nobel laureates, IPCC scientists, and more than 2000 NGOs and businesses.
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