Greater Manchester Environment Fund: Scaling Up Natural Capital Investment
The Greater Manchester Environment Fund (GMEF) focuses on restoring degraded peatlands like the Railway View site in Salford by using financing models based on Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and carbon income.
A partnership between GMCA, Lancashire Wildlife Trust, and Finance Earth uses private investment to restore habitats, improve biodiversity, reduce flood risks, and help achieve carbon neutrality by 2038.
The project serves as a pilot to develop scalable models for natural capital investment across the region.
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 Greater Manchester Environment Fund (GMEF) was established in 2020 to align funding and attract private investment to tackle urgent environmental challenges facing the city region.
This project allows GMEF to expand by implementing a financing model based on carbon and biodiversity net gain (BNG) income to lever investment into GMs habitats in order to scale GMEF facilities to realise GMs Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS).
The pilot involves a cross-sectoral partnership between Lancashire Wildlife Trust (LWT), Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Finance Earth (FE) and GMEF’s Steering Group, that has collaborated for over 2 years to create the GMEF.
The partnership will refine the financing model to unlock identified revenues and deliver investment in a pilot project at Chat Moss in Salford and Wigan, to restore a vital but degraded peatland habitat through combining carbon and BNG income.
The project will involve:
- Financial and ecological analysis to test and demonstrate stacking approaches.
- IUCN UK Peat Program collaboration to support the extension of the Peatland Code to lowland peat on arable land.
- Developing the financing structure and investment case and taking it to market to raise investment.
- Sharing learnings through GMEF to scale up facilities and create a blueprint city region environmental investment fund.
Project Aim
Investment at scale is required if we are to meet Greater Manchester’s ambition to reach net zero by 2038 and reverse nature’s decline by addressing key priorities identified within our Local Nature Recovery Network Strategy. This project will stimulating repayable finance to restore valuable habitats in Greater Manchester through the development of a robust and scalable investment model, based on biodiversity and carbon income.
Project partners
Funding model
The investment model aims to combine BNG and carbon income streams to restore important peatland habitat in Salford.
Salford City Council (SCC) was selected for the pilot as the first council to include BNG in its Local Plan and its interest in utilising BNG income to secure investment in priority habitats. Initial ecological assessment of a 50ha site at Chat Moss indicates c.140 BNG unit uplift potential. Private investment would allow important sites to be restored in advance of development impact, providing offsite BNG credits for sale to local developers and helping to deliver the GM Local Nature Recovery Network Strategies.
The GM region also has huge untapped potential for restoration of carbon sink landscapes, including woodland and lowland peatland. With Greater Manchester’s ambition to become carbon neutral by 2038 and interest from companies in domestic offsets, the project aims to develop a business model for peatland restoration based on income generated by voluntary carbon credits.
The project aims to secure investment into restoration of a pilot peatland site based on stacking income from BNG and carbon, proving an investment model to replicate and scale.
Fig 1. A summary of the initial proposed investment structure is outlined below:
Future Investment Potential
Future investment potential. Mitigation and adaptation to climate change: Chat Moss is of particular importance and identified as a priority within Greater Manchester’s emerging Nature Recovery Network Strategy. Restoration is critical to allow rare species to recover and deliver landscape scale connectivity priorities for the Greater Manchester’s Wetlands and to enable carbon capture.
Thriving plants and wildlife: The project seeks to develop a financing structure suitable to support scale up across a range of habitats in Greater Manchester, delivering key priorities identified in the Greater Manchester’s Local Nature Recovery Networks.
Out of date? Contact us at info@ecosystemsknowledge.net