Natural capital innovation

The Challenge

It’s clear that we need to do more for nature. 41% of UK species have declined in abundance since 1971, and this trend is showing no signs of reversal. One quarter of native mammals are now at risk of extinction in Britain.

Whilst this trend has been driven in part by historic land use subsidies, the UK’s agricultural land has an important role to play in delivering both food production and outcomes for nature in the future.

There is a growing pool of evidence for approaches that can balance food production and environmental benefits by combining land sparing and land sharing approaches. Under such models, the most productive land remains used for food production and nature restoration focuses on marginal land. For medium productivity land, mixed management models that blend restorative activities and low intensity agriculture are appropriate – this is where much of our Natural Capital Innovation Projects focus.

To meet government and National Park nature restoration targets, public and private funding needs to be targeted towards testing new business models on mixed, working landscapes that promote wildlife and biodiversity while also producing food. Such approaches offer new livelihood opportunities and can create and support local jobs.

How our innovation projects work

Revere’s Natural Capital Innovation aims to scale and accelerate progress towards the UK government’s nature restoration targets by testing new approaches to managing working landscapes.

Revere works with existing landowners and communities to design and implement innovative locally owned projects to expand species-rich, grasslands, woodlands and wetlands within food production landscapes.

The innovation projects test the feasibility of stacking revenue generated through multiple ecosystem services, including new and novel value chains. For example, combining carbon credits, government incentive schemes, biodiversity outcomes, water quality improvements and flood risk reduction outcomes.

Innovation projects can lead to a range of outcomes, from securing private funding, to testing new business models that provide valuable lessons for other land managers and policy makers.

Where the business models we design with land managers prove to be commercially viable, the environmental outcomes are sold to corporate buyers. Revere works with investors to raise the upfront capital required for restoration.