FOCUS GROUPS

Group

Environmental groups (e.g. Wildlife Trusts)

Key Message

● In order to ensure that nature finance applies to a wide range of habitat types, there is an urgent need to develop more standards for the trading of environmental credits.

● Uncertainty of revenue levels in the future is holding back the progress of environmental projects.

● Uncertainty over regulatory requirements is needed in order to unlock projects (especially with regard to nutrient trading and the additionality of projects).

● Some projects are confused (and therefore held back) by the number of potential land management and revenue generation choices.

● The appetite for shared learning is high.

● There is a need for more knowledge of the legal and corporate procurement mechanisms that are needed for environmental market transactions.

● Standardised legal agreements, contracts and financial models would be useful.

Farmer businesses and their advisors

● Revenue uncertainty is the main issue preventing farm businesses from pursuing nature finance. In connection with this, farm businesses are already managing many risks to their business.

● Committing to any land use change is a huge risk, given that it could not easily be reversed and the implications for tax, land values and regulatory compliance are unknown.

● Farmers only want to participate in high integrity environmental markets.

● Farm businesses often feel like the scapegoat and do not see it as solely their role to mitigate the impacts of other organisations.

Group

Solutions providers (environmental consultants, environmental trading platforms)

Key Message

● This group identified a common a perception among their clients and customers that nature-based projects are a ‘nice-to-have’ rather than serious, evidence-based courses of action worthy of financial innovation.

● Projects of all sizes are needed to deliver on our ambitions.

● Considerable human resource and money is needed to initiate nature finance projects. While schemes such as the NEIRF have been useful, additional and ongoing feasibility and early-stage funding will be required.

● Collaboration is key; the impact and size of projects can be multiplied by accessing different buyers, buying multiple outcomes from the same project.

● A strong regulatory framework is key to cawtalysing action. Net zero requirements have driven carbon sequestration activity. Regulation of utility companies has driven waterbased markets. Similar rules are now required in other areas such as biodiversity.

● The Woodland Carbon Code and Peatland Code are important, but development of other codes and standards are important to developing projects at a landscape scale.

● More skilled and trained advisors are needed as well as standardised contracts for nature finance transactions.