Aggregating supply is key for attracting investment into natural capital. The Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF) has awarded funding to the Environmental Farmers Group (EFG), a natural capital trading co-operative that operates across several farmer clusters in the Avon catchment. It aims to facilitate access for its 75 farmer members to private nature markets, providing a fair financial return on restoring their natural capital through the sale of biodiversity units, nutrient offsets and carbon credits.
EFG’s aggregation model provides an opportunity for organisations looking for large- scale environmental trades to deal with a single body. In order to develop scale and ensure the inclusion of smaller farms, equalisation is built into the member contracts so that 88% of a trade will go to the member farm providing the ecosystem service/ environmental outcome, while 9% is shared with the farms in the catchment area. The remainder pays for EFG’s operating costs.
Mobilising Green Investment: 2023 Green Finance Strategy