Land management firm Restore has initiated discussions with investors to set up a fund to secure a 40,000-hectare biodiversity uplift across the UK.
Restore, whose CEO Benedict Macdonald authored the award-winning book “Rebirding”, is setting up a Biodiversity Uplift Fund that aims to drive large-scale, long-term ecological restoration across the UK through biodiversity credits, the company said in a post on LinkedIn.
“The land, which is already owned across a large portfolio covering England, Scotland, and Wales, is not due to be commercially afforested, nor is suitable for intensive or traditional commercial forms of farming,” Restore said.
Restore will work with landowners to provide management services for positive nature outcomes to be achieved over 30+ years, and is in early conversations with investors.
The company hopes to appeal to natural capital investors who are looking to diversify their investment portfolio of commercial projects such as forestry or farming, with rewilding and nature recovery projects too. The fund is due to launch in Jan. 2024.
“Those financing large land portfolios are rightly sceptical around either funding the entire lot to be put into conventional land use (commercial forestry) or into natural capital or nature restoration schemes,” Restore said.
“As a result we are seeing a hybrid market developing, whereby those funding sustainable commercial land use are also prepared to venture some risk/reward in funding ‘rewilding’ within that land portfolio.”
The company added it was unable to provide any further detail at the moment.
“Gone are the days when government grants or NGO funding alone decided the future (or sometimes lack thereof) of really large areas of nature restoration in the UK,” it said.
Biodiversity credit markets are at different stages across the devolved nations in the UK, as the monetisation of nature hits full swing. A voluntary mechanism in Scotland is in development whereas mandatory biodiversity net gain is a major focus for landowners in England and is due to take effect in Nov. 2023.
One major challenge for new funds is ensuring a reasonable rate of return for natural capital investors, who have seen the sector as niche and immature. With burgeoning biodiversity credit markets, participants say historic low returns have the potential to shift within the next few years.
By Tom Woolnough – tom@carbon-pulse.com
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