NEIRF Project
About
The project formed a feasibility study to structure the protected landscape for developing an investment offer and financing. We facilitated the project on behalf of Cornwall AONB Trust.
Aim
To ensure nature recovery across the boundaries of protected landscapes and to share with stakeholders our findings about blended finance for current and future agri-environment schemes.
Project Overview
In our Discovery process we identified a potential £15m natural capital and ecosystem service benefits could be available on the Lizard – Section 08, South Coast Western. In this study we calculated that for every £1 of public money spent there would be a £3 return on investment.
In the event that government schemes would not be able to provide the amount needed to realise this return we looked to understand if private investment and blended finance could form the solution to sustainable and successful farm businesses, whilst delivering more for nature, building resilience to/ mitigating climate change and enhancing landscape character and heritage.
Structuring the protected landscape for private investment required a feasibility study to understand how this might be achievable.
The project ran for 12 months, with a core group of farmers and land managers based on the Lizard and a group of consultant, experts in their field, who ran various elements of the projects and collaborated extensively on their findings.
Aims & Objectives
The aim of this project was to further the protected landscape to develop opportunities for private investment ensuring the conservation and enhancement of the protected landscape. Our objective is secure existing and increase natural capital during a period of ecological and climate crisis.
Output : Modelling Price Discovery for Ecosystem Services
We wanted to identify private investment opportunities for collaborative nature and landscape recovery in our geographical location. This included corporate social responsibility (CSR) products, carbon credit schemes, biodiversity offsetting and reviewing other opportunities.
Output : Deal Structures for Potential Investors
Deal Structures for Potential Investors Following market testing we looked to identify expressions of interest from our buyers and suppliers and present back to our supply side the potential deal structures that would need to be in place, assessing the risks and barriers.
Output : Private Investment Strategy
This strategy is based upon the findings of the feasibility study and is ground-truthed in Section 08, South Coast Western. However, this is a model and set of actions that we can roll out for the remaining 11 Sections of Cornwall National Landscape.
Outcome
We have built a network of trusted and valued relationships with farmers and landowners. We ran workshops, feedback and consultations throughout to understand the opportunities, risks and how this would impact their farm businesses. This increased the knowledge of the group and confidence to develop (or not) private investment options.
Outcome
A better understanding of how the Cornwall National Landscape Partnership and Cornwall AONB Trust CIO were perceived and the benefits of this. We ran workshops to understand and analyse the risks and benefits for the Cornwall AONB Trust as a facilitator/ intermediary.
Outcome
Cornwall National Landscape and the farmer group have a road-map to develop private investment opportunities further. As part of this strategy, and throughout the learning, monitoring was identified as necessary to develop the aims further.
Benefits
Our Primary Purpose is to conserve and enhance Natural Beauty.
Our priority is to lead and support projects which deliver under these four key categories.
Find out more
People
Communities in the Cornwall National Landscape live entirely outside the main towns, within villages, hamlets and scattered farmsteads, dispersed throughout the landscape. It’s a mixed picture with areas of extreme wealth and also extreme deprivation.
Place
The beauty and character of the protected landscape is primarily owed to the stewardship of generations of farmers and landowners. It is essential to appreciate, understand and value its unique and diverse character and reinvest in this precious resource in order to continue to conserve and enhance it for future generations.
Nature
Set against a backdrop of unprecedented concern for the future of the natural world and ecological crisis the current global response to the effects of human impact on nature is insufficient. The ‘richest’ sites for wildlife are too few, too small, too degraded and too disconnected. Nature Recovery must take place to restore and reverse this ecological decline.
Climate
The climate emergency is the defining challenge of our time. In January 2019, Cornwall Council declared a climate emergency, recognising the need for urgent action to address the climate crisis. Climate change also poses threats to Cornwall National Landscape’s cultural heritage and heritage assets, including historic landscape and seascape.
Project Detail
The project ran for 12 months, with a core group of farmers and land managers based on the Lizard and a group of consultants, experts in their field, who ran various elements of the projects and collaborated extensively on their findings.
Images
Cornwall National Landscape represents the 9th largest protected landscape in the country. Cornwall AONB Trust, as a charitable incorporated organisation, could act as a facilitator within the protected landscape to assist the development of ecosystem services projects. The Lizard Farmer Group is a group of forward-thinking farmers that previously co-designed a Landscape Management Framework for the Lizard with the Cornwall National Landscape team. Terranomics, Gain Consulting and the University of Exeter are also supporting this group to develop farm plans, private investment opportunities and strategies.
Through working with the Lizard farmer group, we shortlisted the following enhancement types, known as Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) opportunities:
- Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) – through the sale of offsite biodiversity units using the DEFRA Biodiversity Metric 3.0
- Woodland Carbon – through the sale of carbon credits using the Woodland Carbon Code (WCC)
- Soil Carbon – through the sale of carbon credits using a private scheme (e.g., the Soil Capital Carbon Scheme)
- Water Catchments – through outcome-based payments for water quality and reduced flooding impact.
The overall intervention area for the PES opportunities in Section 08 is approximately 213 hectares. The largest opportunities lie with Biodiversity Net Gain (54 hectares) and Woodland Carbon (52 hectares). This could generate an uplift of 283 Biodiversity Units, or 14,000 tCO2e sequestered over 30 years. Using conservative estimates these opportunities could provide a helpful revenue stream for farmers, an interesting margin for potential investors and a cost-effective means of delivering environmental improvements.
For a potential funder or investor, the funding options could include:
- Directly purchasing credits or units (per individual ecosystem service, or for ecosystem services bundled together)
- Funding project development in return for a share of future project revenues
- Funding to agricultural suppliers to increase the resilience of corporate supply chains
This could be done directly between buyers and sellers, or via an intermediary or facilitating organisation (such as the Cornwall AONB Trust). This is a local opportunity to engage with Cornish farmers and landowners exploring new mechanisms that could generate significant benefits for nature and local communities.
- Opportunities for high-impact nature recovery and landscape recovery. Buyers and potential investors could have confidence that investments in this project will deliver high quality, and measurable impact for nature.
- A distinct landscape in terms of wildlife, tourism, heritage, and engagement. A fifth of the Lizard is of special scientific interest and almost a third is national priority habitat, with many unique species. There are opportunities for buyers to be involved in a visible example of a UK nature-based project with multiple benefits.
- An innovative forward-thinking group of farmers. Nine farmers who have set priority land management objectives, that if achieved, could generate £120 million to £535 million in terms of public goods in the Lizard peninsula.
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Information for Farmers and Land managers
Feasibility of private investment for Suppliers (Farmers)
Environments and ecosystems services targeted
Shortlisted PES Transactions
Woodland Carbon Code
Biodiversity Net Gain
Soil Carbon
Key Findings
The farmer group
The farmer group were most interested in grant funding, direct business investment and Wilder Carbon as mechanisms for Payments for Ecosystem services. These provide capital, are flexible in what actions can be done and help to enhance biodiversity.
Overall barriers
Overall barriers to entering into private finance deals in the short term were public sector uncertainty and concerns over ethics and that there is little opportunity to support biodiversity actions. Although Biodiversity Net Gain and Wilder Carbon were discussed, the group felt that there were not enough opportunities to support farmers who want to go the extra mile for biodiversity.
Overall incentives
Overall incentives to entering into private finance deals were clarity over when blended finance should start, clarity over ELMs and support with finding biodiversity and carbon opportunities on their farm. It was clear that until the government provide clarity over future Agri-environment schemes and over how they expect blended finance to work, engagement in private finance from the supply side will be difficult.
Finance structures
The farmer group were most interested in the Bundling and Group and Aggregated private finance structures. This was because these structures provide opportunities to enhance biodiversity and provide the support needed to help farmers to work together to provide products at scale.
Engagement
Engagement in the NEIRF project overall increased farmer awareness, knowledge and understanding of the different private finance options a lot. Overall, their confidence in being able to access private finance in the medium term (4-10 years) had increased slightly.
Key actions
Key actions that Cornwall National Landscape could take to position themselves as a facilitator or programme manager to support private investment into farms were to form a collaboration with the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) and /or other trusted organisations such as dairies or marketing boards in the farming sector.
Farmer Feedback
“It has been eye-opening the whole process, I’m glad I have been involved and something I’d recommend a farmer doing if they have the chance. I’ve looked forward to the meetings and always come away with a nugget of information”
“I’m keen to keep working with the AONB and experimenting with new opportunities. I’ll always keep looking for what’s next”
“I think we all started thinking – why would we want to make other people’s businesses look better than they are – but working with the group has shown this may not be such a problem and that ethics are being considered”
“Farmers want to see how it all works on the ground so more farm walks about carbon, trees or biodiversity net gain would be a good idea”
Deal Structures
The project shortlisted PES Transactions which included the sale of carbon credits (woodland carbon and soil carbon) and biodiversity units. The types of potential finance supplementary to this includes:
Direct business investment, grants and Wilder Carbon. These provide capital to the farm business and offer more flexibility for the farmers to create actions for biodiversity and carbon sequestration that fit with their farming practices. Wilder Carbon was popular because it included actions to enhance biodiversity and wasn’t just focused on tree planting. Soil carbon, Agroforestry Carbon Codes (in development) along with Biodiversity compensation (such as Biodiversity Net Gain) were all somewhat popular.
Grants
Payments to incentivise a performance or goal which are not paid back
Loans
Credit for a specific purpose, paid back with interest over a timeframe
Equity
Cash injection provided in return for a share of the company and profits
Supply Chain Finance
Low levels of credit and business inputs from actors in the value chain
Guarantees
A promise to cover losses that a lender might experience
Blended finance
Use of public funds to mobilise private finance
Required levels of investment – Scale
There are 19,227 hectares within Cornwall National Landscape’s Section 08 South Coast Western, of which 14,170 hectares could be agricultural land. The overall intervention area for the PES opportunities in Section 08, based on the Lizard Farmer Group extrapolations and the area available for agricultural land, are estimated at 4,308 hectares. These are very high-level estimates using average values based on a small sample size of farmers, with above-average interest in environmental interventions. There might, however, be a lower proportion of agricultural land on the Lizard due to the large extent of semi-natural habitats. This would also require buy-in from a larger group of farmers and landowners in the Lizard, with whom Cornwall National Landscape might not have already engaged. At the £550 per hectare asking price, the total annual required investment would be £2.4M or £71.1M over 30 years. This could generate an estimated gross margin of £500,000 a year for buyers. Estimated ROI per year = 21%
Project Timeline
2016 – Natural Capital in the Protected Landscape (Research Project) Natural capital put simply is the elements of the natural environment that provide humans with services, services, such as flood control, water and air quality, carbon storage and food production.
2018 – Farming for the Nation Test Trial Cornwall National Landscape test trial examined how Defra’s Future Schemes (ELM – Environment Land Management) can use a fuller understanding of natural capital, and ecosystem services, to provide a positive change for the biodiversity and heritage of the Lizard Peninsula, whilst also delivering wider multiple benefits for local communities.
2021 – NEIRF Project (something that highlights this as the project you are looking at ie current)
2022 – Seedcorn – Lizard Farm for Nature
