New support to help farmers access private investment has been announced by the government to help support nature recovery on farms.
Defra has today (19 June) unveiled the launch of an additional round of the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF).
The new round aims to help farmers to come together at a landscape scale to combine their offer to investors.
The round, which opens later this year, will be the first time the fund focuses specifically on the farming industry.
To date, 86 projects across England have received grants of up to £100,000 through two competitive rounds of the £10 million NEIRF in 2021 and 2022.
Defra Secretary Thérèse Coffey said: "We must continue to support farmers to keep our nation fed while also safeguarding the valuable biodiversity and landscapes we rely on.
"[It] is an important step forward in bringing together farmers and financiers to invest in nature and unlock new opportunities to improve the productivity, profitability and sustainability of farm businesses."
The NEIRF funds projects that have the potential to produce revenue from the benefits nature provides to attract and repay investment, as well as projects able to produce an investment model that can be scaled up and reproduced.
The Wendling Beck Exemplar Project, a collaboration between farmers, local authorities, environmental NGOs, and Anglian Water, is one that has benefitted from support.
This project aims to transform land use for environmental benefit while also selling ecosystem services such as Biodiversity Net Gain.
Glenn Anderson, Wendling Beck Exemplar Project lead, said the fund was critical in safeguarding long-term UK food security.
"The project was fortunate to receive funding from the NEIRF, which supported the projects feasibility and design at a critical time," he said.
"The funding enabled us to consolidate the project structure and lay some important foundations on which the project now stands.
Defra has also announced the start of the piloting phase of a new version of the Green Finance Institute’s (GFI) investment readiness toolkit.
This aims to provide a tailored framework offering farmers advice on how to create investable nature finance projects.
