Doubling Nature
The Doubling Nature project, led by Mersey Forest in collaboration with the Bollin Valley Partnership, aims to attract private investment for natural habitat restoration across the Bollin Valley in Cheshire and Greater Manchester. The project focuses on creating Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to pool private investment for initiatives like reforestation, habitat development, and natural flood management. These efforts will improve carbon sequestration, water quality, flood resilience, and biodiversity, with revenue generated through the sale of carbon, biodiversity credits, and timber. The project is designed to be replicable across other non-designated sites and is supported by both public and private funding.
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 studyThe objectives of Doubling Nature focus on delivering multiple benefits through a range of habitat creation and management, supported primarily by buyer contracts for NFM and water quality and secured grant support for woodland and priority habitat creation.
Objectives include:
- Double woodland cover and/or woodland under management across the Bollin Catchment (and subsequent catchments in future phases) with a mix of interventions from planting to management including productive woodland, amenity woodland, rewilding woodland within 25 years (at least 250ha within first 10 years).
- Double other important (priority) habitat types, including creating or managing 900ha of semi-natural or marshy grasslands, 80ha of heathland and 75ha of mire (bog) within 25 years.
- Three online workshops promoted nationally with key partners to set out the approach, key lessons and invite expert contributions to provide best practise and practical advice. The project team has extensive strategic and direct interest in taking the approach to catchments across Cheshire and the Liverpool City Region.
The Bollin Catchment, as typical lowland catchment, suggests that successful approaches could be applied to significant areas of the country i.e. it is not based on special circumstances, other than significant partner, landowner and investor interest.
Project Aim
Develop a catchment scale approach to doubling woodland cover and/or woodland under management across the Bollin Catchment with a mix of interventions from planting to management including productive woodland, amenity woodland, rewilding woodland within 25 years (and Double other important (priority) habitat types, including creating or managing 900ha of semi-natural or marshy grasslands, 80ha of heathland and 75ha of mire (bog) within 25 years.
Project partners
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IMT Consulting
AMION Consulting
Natural Capital Solutions
Liverpool John Moores University
University of Birmingham
Hill Dickinson and Forest and Land Ltd
Cheshire West and Chester Council / Mersey Forest (accountable body)
Cheshire East Council (host Council)
Environment Agency
Tatton Group
Funding model
The model will be developed through the course of the project but will build on the approach taken on the Wyre Catchment. In particular, the project will use extensive natural capital baseline data alongside landowner knowledge of key infrastructure projects to consider all large scale co-investment opportunities arising from the Bollin’s unique context and proximity to major employment and population centres and Manchester Airport.
The approach is defined by Buyer and Investors as follows:
Natural Capital Buyers: organisations and businesses who contract with the Natural Capital Trust for the delivery of Natural Capital Contracts. These contracts will be long term in nature and consist of payments for the receipt of natural capital outcomes.
Capital Investors: organisations and businesses who wish to support the objectives of the Natural Capital Trust by taking a fixed term, fixed rate bond product, underpinned by the performance of the natural capital contracts and revenues generated by land and natural capital assets owned and managed by the Trust.
The structure allows for the investment of government programmes, e.g., Trees for Climate and other aspects of the Nature for Climate Programme as well as direct developer contributions, Biodiversity Offsetting and funding derived from local enforcement action.
Future Investment Potential
Clean and plentiful water: Catchment scale approach developed in partnership with United Utilities and the Environment Agency to improving water quality with buffer planting and planting schemes on strategically located land, including agricultural land.
Thriving plants and wildlife: Of the area identified as potentially suitable for woodland planting, over 70% falls within an opportunity area for another ecosystem service, so provides two benefits at the same time.
Climate Change adaptation and mitigation: A key driver for this project is the sequestration of Carbon by trees and the management of woodlands and peatlands. Significant capital and revenue funding from the Trees for Climate programme will support interventions to lock up carbon.
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