Experts in New Forest habitats and Columbian rainforest share best practice
PUBLISHED ON: 9 AUGUST 2022Columbian NGO Terrasos recently met the New Forest National Park Authority and visited the Cadland Estate near Fawley to discuss how to fund large-scale nature restoration projects.
Terrasos has helped improve 23,000 hectares of habitat in Columbia after identifying degraded land which needs to be restored and sourcing funding.
Working with Palladium, a company specialising in identifying innovative solutions to environmental issues, the New Forest National Park Authority was awarded £100,000 last year to develop and trial a new investment model that can contribute to restoring nature, which could be replicated across the UK.
The pilot project is working with Forestry England and the Cadland and Barker-Mill Estates to identify where arable farmland and low-quality grasslands could be turned into woodlands and wetlands to enhance nature, capture carbon, improve water quality and extend these benefits to the wider Forest.
Paul Walton, Head of Environment and Rural Economy at the New Forest National Park Authority, said: ‘Economic values are then given to these environmental benefits provide for people, what they cost to deliver, and how much investment is needed to get started. The model, funded by the Government’s Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF), will help create a green market for environmental services and will stimulate private sector funding for nature improvements in the National Park.’
There are several emerging private finance markets funding nature restoration in the UK which are designed to ensure compensation results in a ‘like-for-like’ replacement. For example, Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) legislation when it comes into force (expected late 2023) will require housing developers to compensate for any biodiversity loss they cause and fund a minimum of 10% biodiversity gain elsewhere.
The visitors saw the restoration programme on the Cadland Estate of areas where gravel had been extracted over 200 years and work to link together fragments of heathland habitats. The programme aims to capture carbon which contributes to climate change, promote biodiversity and sequester harmful nitrogen from going into the Solent.
Emma Davies, Senior Partnerships Manager at Palladium, said: ‘The New Forest National Park has this great network with landowners and land managers in this area and understands deeply the landscape, the ecology of the land and what the potential is of this area. Whereas we have more business acumen and experience in developing viable business models and that combination of skills has really proven why it’s an effective partnership.’
Mariana Sarmiento, Founder and general manager of Terrasos said: ‘One of the key things about the habitat banking projects we’re involved in, is that they’re mostly being created in areas that are under-represented within the National Park system; we’re able to bring in private investment for setting up projects, and then we sell biodiversity credits.’
Ashley Gillan, Project Development Associate at Palladium, said: ‘It was fantastic to hear how a biodiversity payment market is in full swing and transforming farmers’ lives in Colombia to such a successful level that they’ve expanded 10-fold. If we could introduce such a scheme in the UK, not only are you benefitting biodiversity and helping bring it back from crisis point, you’re also allowing farmers and land managers to confidently see a financial future in this changing subsidy environment.’
The NEIRF project in the New Forest began last summer and is due to end this autumn with results published on the NPA website at www.newforestnpa.gov.uk.
More information on the project can be found here: www.newforestnpa.gov.uk/news/new-forest-national-park-authority-awarded-100000-grant-in-pioneering-scheme-to-help-tackle-climate-crisis/
Visit the Terrasos website for further details: https://en.terrasos.co/sobre-terrasos
-ends-
