Natural capital services
From using trees to offset carbon to the positive mental health gains of the countryside, there’s an increasing need to place a financial value on the natural environment and its benefits. These value calculations help us to work out the cost of altering the natural environment and give us guidance on how to reward those creating and protecting natural capital.
This has the greatest impact on the UK’s rural landowners – the custodians of most of the country’s natural capital. Using their land to offer nature-based solutions to our planet’s biggest challenges – such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, and air and water pollution – comes with the added benefit of creating new income streams for the estate.
Nature-based markets
With a wide range of expertise and experience, our Rural Consultancy team is well placed to advise landowners and farmers on nature-based solutions and the additional income these solutions can generate. We’ll help you tap into potential opportunities around ecosystem services, including
- Carbon credits from resources like woodland and peatland
- Voluntary and mandatory biodiversity (Biodiversity Net Gain units) - find out more here.
- Nutrient neutrality, like nitrate and phosphate credits
- Water neutrality, for example funding to reduce water abstraction
- Nature’s social value, such as green prescribing and human wellbeing
Our natural capital services
- Natural capital strategies: We help landowners and land managers review their natural capital assets and formulate a strategy to maximise opportunities.
- Feasibility studies: We assist with the initial assessment or baselining of land, including the local market, for ecosystem market units, such as a Biodiversity Net Gain.
- Bringing to market: We prepare clients’ potential natural capital site or ready to sell credits for sale in the marketplace (feasibility, baselining, and site registration).
- Matchmaking: We act as a brokerage service for buyers and sellers of ecosystem credits or units.
- Tender events: We facilitate an open event for buyers of ecosystem credits or units to tender for an estate's offering.
- End-to-end service: We provide a holistic service, helping with developer pre-planning, habitat strategy, planning approval, habitat creation, units purchase, management, and monitoring.
- Carbon footprinting: We work with a trusted software company to help our clients better understand their carbon emissions and sequestration potential.
- Planning support: We help landowner developers with regulatory processes, secure approval for their projects, and identify nature-based solutions to meet requirements.
- Environmental and social grant funding: We advise clients on public or private funding grants and schemes that make the most of their natural capital assets.
There are many schemes that offer financial support to those wanting to explore nature-based solutions. To find out more about Environmental Land Management Schemes and the services we provide to support them, visit grant funding.
We work in partnership with
Watch our rural experts explain natural capital and how the buying and selling of credits or units works.
Find out more about how our Rural Consultancy team works alongside rural estates to implement nature-based solutions.