Developing Landowner Natural Capital Investment Plans for Nature Restoration
In Surrey, the Surrey Nature Partnership, Surrey Climate Change Commission and Surrey Flood Risk Partnership Board have all set out the challenge: to stimulate appropriate land uses which embed nature based solutions with sustainable funding. Surrey’s Place Ambition recognises investing in nature’s recovery as a key strategic objective for environmental & economic recovery.
To enable this approach, barriers for landowners have to be overcome so that changing their land management approach provides viable alternatives to existing uses.
The Specific objectives are:
Objective 1: By 6 months, deliver LNCIPs for the 6 pilots across 2,435 ha including BNG unit assessments, a financial model assessment & scenario planning to support landowners with actively engaging in ecosystem service markets (carbon, BNG, ELMs) including connecting them to potential buyers (private developers & corporates) & providing appropriate technical advice regarding governance & legislation.
Objective 2: By month 15, preparation of business cases for landowners to undertake habitat restoration interventions (as per the LNCIPs) and identify opportunities for upfront investment. The project also aims to enable provision of indicative buyer agreements for at least 2 habitat banks on the larger estates. This will help overcome the barriers of land supply.
Objective 3: By month 15, dissemination of the learnings & opportunities from the 6 pilot sites to encourage neighbouring landowners within the North Downs, Low Weald and Wealden Greensand to join the supply pipeline. This will include delivering at least 1 internal WT webinar on the approach, producing case studies to share with landowners and holding an event with Surrey-wide landowners.
The main revenues will be generated from the biodiversity enhancement and carbon sequestration achieved through delivering interventions in the LNCIPs, with a review to extend to ELMs payments from government as policy is defined.
Project Aim
To address two barriers to achieving investment in natural assets – a strong and robust supply of land and the ability to scale.
To support 6 pilot sites (estates, farms & golf courses) to create landowner led Natural Capital Investment Plans (LNCIPs) & develop a business case for landowners to deliver nature-friendly interventions.
Project partners
Funding model
The LNCIPs & regenerative agriculture transition plans will provide an assessment of the potential NBS income streams based on the landowners’ objectives. The project will focus on payments from BNG, followed by carbon & ELMs , as commercially viable sources of revenue from benefits delivered through nature-friendly farming.
BNG: At least 2 ‘habitat banks’ will be created or enhanced to deliver measurable uplift to biodiversity, creating BNG units for sale to developers. The financial potential is significant with an estimated supply of 2000 BNG units in 3 Surrey BOAs & market value of c.£30M. These pilots will deliver between 500-700 hectares of habitat creation. The NCIC funded under NEIRF1 will be a vehicle to take the BNG units to market.
Carbon: Existing codes such as the Woodland Carbon Code & the carbon/hedgerow codes will be used to register planting and restoration projects where relevant. NCIC will support landowners to sell aggregated carbon credits to aligned corporate offtakers .
ELM Payments: Recommended changes in land use will deliver outcomes such as water quality, flood mitigation and biodiversity, with payments received as part of the ELMS initiative once policy is defined.
Where a range of ecosystem benefits can be monetised, the project will explore appropriate stacking and bundling of ecosystem service payments whilst ensuring additionality.
The sellers are a pilot group of 6 landowners in Surrey that form a representative sample & are at different stages in their natural capital planning process. They include 2 large estates (Hampton and Albury Estates), 2 small farmers (Sondes Place Farm and Norney Farm) & 2 golf courses (Woking and West Surrey Golf Courses). These sites are located within the BOAs for which site registers have been prepared and there is known demand for BNG units. All landowners have agreed to participate in the project and have engaged directly in the development of this NEIRF 2 proposal.
For BNG, the main buyers will be local & national developers. Through the NCIC , we have been working closely with various developers (e.g. Thakeham, Waites & Redwood) to estimate potential demand & engaging with LPAs (e.g. Woking, Guildford, Waverley & Mole Valley) regarding housing demand in local plans.
Future Investment Potential
Creating viable Natural Capital Investment Plans will enable landowners to deliver their commercial objectives along with restoration of nature on their landholdings. Associated business and investment plans will include funding mechanisms that will enable the Natural Capital objectives to be delivered. EA 25 Year Environmental plan objectives that this project will contribute to are:
Clean and plentiful water
Thriving plants and wildlife
Mitigation of and adaptation to climate change
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