An environmental company and a water firm in the UK have secured funding from the government to develop a £580,000-project aimed at unlocking nature-based solutions to restore habitats and improve water management.
Led by Zulu Ecosystems and Severn Trent Water, and backed by government agency Innovate UK, the project will focus on woodland creation, wetland restoration, and riparian woodland in the Idle and Torne catchment in England.
The catchment was identified as a priority site by the government, as approximately 60% of water bodies within the area are failing to meet ecological standards.
“By developing a catchment-scale model that aggregates both the supply of, and demand for, ecosystem services, we can accelerate the flow of private capital into nature-based solutions,” said Ed Asseily, CEO of Zulu Ecosystems.
Innovate UK funded the project through a £7 million-programme, dubbed Integrating Finance and Biodiversity, and led in collaboration with the Natural Environment Research Council, which aims to hasten the incorporation of biodiversity into decision-making.
“This funding from Innovate UK is a game-changer for how we approach local nature recovery and water resilience,” said Asseily.
RESTORATION PROJECTS
Zulu Ecosystems specialises in woodland and peatland restoration projects through leveraging satellite imagery, remote sensing, and land analytics to measure nature gains.
Over the next nine months, Zulu Ecosystems and Severn Trent Water will engage local stakeholders, including farmers, landowners, and community groups, to identify priority interventions and develop a portfolio of investable nature-based solutions.
The companies did not disclose at this stage whether the project is set to generate carbon or biodiversity credits, or stack them – meaning it could earn both credit types as long as there is no double counting of benefits.
“The project aims to demonstrate how multi-stakeholder nature-based projects can be developed, funded, and delivered at catchment-scale to address climate adaptation and reverse biodiversity loss,” they said in a joint statement.
The initiative’s findings will help scale similar initiatives across the UK, they added.
Nature markets are growing rapidly in the UK, with a planned consultation on biodiversity credits powered by biodiversity net gain, nutrient mitigation, Woodland Carbon Code, and Peatland Code.
The Peatland Code, backed by the government, is likely to combine voluntary biodiversity credits with carbon from next year.
Voluntary biodiversity credits have also gained traction over the last few months in the country, with the first transaction finalised in August by Candy Crush video game maker King under a government-linked scheme set up by London-headquartered nature tech company Earthly.
By Sergio Colombo – sergio@carbon-pulse.com
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