Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF)

The Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF) has supported over 120 projects in England in their work to attract private money for environmental improvement. These projects have involved land managers in the private, public and third sector, along with their advisors and other enablers.

Established by Defra and the Environment Agency in partnership with Natural England, the fund has provided grants of up to £100,000 to stimulate nature markets and associated investment. It is designed to support HM Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan. Moreover, it aligns with several other key strategies, including the Environmental Improvement Plan, Green Finance Strategy, Nature Markets Framework, and the Agricultural Transition Plan.

Additional resources to support projects in investment readiness and nature markets are available from the Green Finance Institute, a third party assessor to NEIRF. These includes the Investment Readiness Toolkit and the Farming Toolkit.

The first two rounds of the fund supported over 77 projects.

These included pioneering projects across England, such as Hadrian Bond in Northumberland, Essex Net Zero Innovation Futures, Wendling Beck in Norfolk. They also supported the development of the Greater Manchester Environment Fund, the development of new biodiversity net gain (BNG) markets in South Yorkshire and a new home insurance brokerage service that reinvests 80% of profits into nature-based solutions. Explore the full list of NEIRF-supported projects in our project directory.

In addition to supporting place-based projects, the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF) has also funded the development of codes and standards, including those for carbon and biodiversity.

A selection of case studies from the first two rounds highlights how projects protect and enhance the natural environment, generate revenue from ecosystem services, and assess key learning and successes.

Following the successes of Round 1 and Round 2, the third Round is aimed specifically at farmers that want to explore nature markets and private finance for nature.

These include projects to secure private investment into Natural Flood Management in Surrey, establish a Natural Flood Management trading market in Herefordshire and create a paludiculture insetting model with textile supply chain partners.

Voluntary Biodiversity Credits (VBCs): A new nature market in the South Downs

The Iford Estate’s pioneering project in the South Downs National Park demonstrates how forward-thinking businesses can support high-quality nature recovery by using voluntary biodiversity credits. Bruce Howard is in discussion with Ben Taylor, Managing Director of the Iford Estate, Sarah Westbrook, Nature-based Solutions officer, South Downs National Park Authority and Oliver Bolton, CEO & Co-founder of Earthly.