Creation of a Hedgerow Carbon Code
The Hedgerow Carbon Code project focuses on restoring and creating hedgerows on farmland to capture carbon and enhance biodiversity. Farmers and landowners can generate carbon credits by following the code’s standards, monetizing carbon sequestration through the Kana platform.
Filmed in March 2025. Produced by Ecosystems Knowledge Network in support of the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund.
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This project is one of 24 case studies published in 2024, alongside a report evaluating the process, impact and value for money of NEIRF Rounds 1 and 2.
Access full case studyHedgerows are a priority habitat, sequestering carbon at twice the rate of woodland due to their 3 dimensional structure. Doubling the height & width of existing hedges alone would double the 9m tonnes already stored worth an estimated £63m at base C prices. The project has huge national potential, enabling farmers to increase the amount of carbon stored in their hedgerows and trade those carbon credits and providing an additional carbon sequestration opportunity where woodland/peatland does not exist.
We will use the NEIRF grant funding to create a matrix which allows the carbon stored in a hedge to be calculated. The matrix will include values for length, width, height and cutting/laying/coppicing regimes.
We will develop a standard approved methodology based on infield measurements and remote sensing methodology that is simple to operate. This approach will encourage widespread adoption by land managers and farmers.
Having defined a methodology for calculating carbon storage, we will work with a recognised independent verification body to create an auditable Hedgerow Carbon Code similar to the Woodland & Peatland Codes. This is most likely to be the Organic Farmers and Growers (OF&G) certification body. We will focus initially on calculating and auditing carbon credits to give potential purchasers confidence in their veracity. We will then create a marketplace for hedgerow carbon credits.
As larger hedges provide more habitat and food for wildlife, shelter, better water infiltration reducing run-off and soil erosion whilst locking up carbon, the project will contribute towards 25 Year Environment Plan objectives.
The Allerton Team are experienced in developing nature-based solutions applicable to farmland and work with several multinational food chain companies in delivering these.
The project will create an innovative new value and learning for hedges including potential to add biodiversity assessments subsequently e.g. the App could also be used to record numbers of species per 10m of hedge as a biodiversity indicator. This data would be used to calculate a value for biodiversity via pollination services to reflect how the management regime affects this.
Project Aim
Creation of an auditable Hedgerow Carbon Code to increase the amount of carbon storage in farmland hedgerows, encouraging better management and delivery of knock on benefits for biodiversity, soil and water.
Project partners
Funding model
From a land manager’s perspective, hedgerows can be linked with production. Hedgerow carbon credits could be traded alongside selling produce e.g. grain or milk bringing additional income. This means that companies involved in the food supply chain could ‘attach’ these credits to existing conservation requirements or to contribute towards carbon neutral food production targets. Revenue would be generated for carbon sequestered and cost savings of fewer passes with the tractor and flail – farmers being more willing to trade the concept of “tidiness” where an alternative income can be earned. The Woodland Code provides evidence that this model of investment in carbon sequestration appeals to land managers/farmers and investors. Once certification has been achieved, the Code would start to generate revenue and investment opportunities within a year.
Future Investment Potential
Clean and plentiful water: The soil structure and hydrological function of hedgerow soils contributes to the control of surface run-off from surrounding fields with hedge location, orientation and network density cited as important factors. Appropriately sited mature hedges can remove N, P and herbicides from run-off improving the quality of the water reaching watercourses as well as intercepting sediment reducing diffuse pollution.
Mitigation and adaptation to climate change: Research has demonstrated that increasing hedge dimensions can enhance carbon sequestration by between 20 to 200% (depending on the previous management) including above & below ground carbon storage.
Thriving plants and wildlife: The CCC neatly summarized the value of hedgerows to biodiversity with the following statistics – over 600 plants, 1,500 insects, 65 birds and 20 mammals species utilise UK hedgerow habitats – and Wolton estimated the true total number of species to be close to 3,000 (although this will vary with plant species).
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