Matthew Roberts
NEIRF
Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund
Projects
Natural capital and green finance are increasingly important concepts for conservationists, governments and businesses.
The Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF) will be an important mechanism for the Trust as we scale up landscape-level conservation delivery within Surrey.
NEIRF was set up by the UK government to accelerate the mobilisation of private finance into nature recovery and climate change action, aligning to the goals of the 25-year Environment Improvement Plan. The Environment Agency administers this funding on behalf of DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). Two previous rounds of NEIRF funding have been completed (NEIRF 1 and NEIRF 2) with SWT being project participants in both.
Surrey Wildlife Trust has now received funding to deliver two new NEIRF 3 projects within Surrey: The Wey to Investment Readiness, and a Resilient and Scalable Farm Cluster Natural Capital Financing Model. The projects started in August 2024 and are due to end in September 2025.
The Wey to Investment Readiness
This project will take place on two high flood risk zones along the River Wey and will focus on Natural Flood Management (NFM) interventions that can be delivered at scale across river catchments.
NFM aims to restore the natural functions of rivers and water courses through techniques including creating storage ponds and installing leaky dams to help reduce flood risk downstream. As part of the project, we are working with seven farms located between Tilford and Guildford on the River Wey. We will be investigating the potential to secure private investment into delivering NFM interventions.
We will be working in partnership with South East Rivers Trust (SERT), who will be carrying out habitat surveys and modelling on the landholdings within the context of the wider catchment. We aim to identify a series of NFM interventions that can be delivered in parallel with the existing business of the participating farms. This could potentially lead to the monetisation of flood risk reduction as well as the additional benefits that NFM provide, including enhancement of biodiversity, reduced erosion and improved water quality.
We will also be working in partnership with Finance Earth, a financial advisory organisation, to assess the potential market opportunity for NFM interventions within the sub-catchment.
Finance Earth
South East Rivers Trust
Land App
SWT Ecology Services
A Resilient & Scalable Farm Cluster Natural Capital Financing Model
This project will see Surrey Wildlife Trust support eight landowners in the Lingfield area to develop a scalable farm cluster governance model, thus enabling farmers to enter the natural capital markets collectively, and helping them access public and private funding opportunities.
Natural capital markets harness the power of markets and private investment to deliver nature-based solutions to environmental and social problems. These markets could include selling carbon units from woodland creation or biodiversity units from a habitat bank, among other options. Through entering these the markets, the farm cluster would be able to have a greater impact, thus accelerating nature’s recovery.
The participants will initially gather baseline data, as well as connectivity data to allow investigations into the natural capital processes within the cluster, and to consider landscape recovery at scale. They will be supported to assess the different options to decide on the most financially, and environmentally sustainable option.
Finance Earth is a partner for this project and will lead on the financial modelling to help advance understanding of how entering natural capital markets can work for clusters of landowners, as well as looking at ongoing funding options for the cluster.
SES Water is also a partner of the project and has offered ongoing support to advise and fund potential interventions.
The cluster will become a case study for how other groups of landowners can combine resources, and ensure financial resilience, when also considering entering nature markets. These lessons will be shared to help other clusters assessing how best to enter nature markets.
Ed Marshall