Aonachadh: integrating biodiversity and finance
Lead Research Organisation:
Scotland's Rural College
Department Name: Research
Abstract
Aonachadh (ún`-ach-A) is gaelic for coming together, for two faces of a mountain that meet to form a uniting ridge. Building on and expanding an existing network of over 280+ organisations, we will bring together a wide range of stakeholders interested in investable biodiversity uplift projects. We will develop methods for creating standardised, accessible, and verifiable data, metrics and tools for voluntary biodiversity markets, and co-create research questions and a programme of work that can lead to a common framework for data gathering and business models and community engagement methods acceptable to supply-side projects as well as demand side investors.
Research activity will enable us to come together in workshops and working groups to collaboratively co-create research questions, and then share, discuss and learn from lessons emerging from biodiversity uplift pilot projects engaging with voluntary markets in Scotland.
Our research network - of established and emerging projects, financiers and policy makers - will contribute to NERC's Nature Positive Future programme from the unique context of Scotland, which is experiencing unprecedented increases in land values alongside a land reform agenda that seeks to deliver benefits from biodiversity markets for local communities. Scotland's place-based approach to ecosystem market development provides a unique opportunity to understand interactions between biodiversity, finance and society and what this means for environmental and economic resilience. Recent and ongoing work from the core team, and established connections with UK stakeholders and channel partners Ecosystems Knowledge Network and the Green Finance Institute, means we can initiate a quick start for more results and impact.
Research activity will enable us to come together in workshops and working groups to collaboratively co-create research questions, and then share, discuss and learn from lessons emerging from biodiversity uplift pilot projects engaging with voluntary markets in Scotland.
Our research network - of established and emerging projects, financiers and policy makers - will contribute to NERC's Nature Positive Future programme from the unique context of Scotland, which is experiencing unprecedented increases in land values alongside a land reform agenda that seeks to deliver benefits from biodiversity markets for local communities. Scotland's place-based approach to ecosystem market development provides a unique opportunity to understand interactions between biodiversity, finance and society and what this means for environmental and economic resilience. Recent and ongoing work from the core team, and established connections with UK stakeholders and channel partners Ecosystems Knowledge Network and the Green Finance Institute, means we can initiate a quick start for more results and impact.
Organisations
- Scotland's Rural College (Lead Research Organisation)
- Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- NatureScot (Scottish Natural Heritage) (Project Partner)
- Federated Hermes (Project Partner)
- Ecosystems Knowledge Network (Project Partner)
- Treeconomics Ltd (Project Partner)
- Scottish Government (Project Partner)
- Green Finance Institute (Project Partner)
- Lauriston Farm (Project Partner)
- The Scottish Forestry Trust (Project Partner)
- Scottish National Investment Bank (Project Partner)
- RSPB Scotland (Project Partner)
- Scottish Wildlife Trust (Project Partner)
- Highlands Rewilding (Project Partner)
- Finance Earth (Project Partner)
Publications
McCarthy, J.,
(2023)
Scottish Nature Finance Pioneers Members Survey Results
McCarthy, J., And Rudman, H.
(2024)
Examples of Innovative Biodiversity Projects in Scotland
| Title | SNFP Member Survey Results presentation |
| Description | A presentation of results from the recent Scottish Nature Finance Pioneers network survey, where 96 members completed the survey and shared experiences. This presentation includes insights about the organisational makeup of the network, what members identified as their primary motivations and interests for engaging in the network, and what nature finance topics are of greatest interest to survey respondents. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| URL | https://sruc.figshare.com/articles/presentation/SNFP_Member_Survey_Results_presentation/24288451 |
| Description | Biodiversity and nature finance case studies, developed over a year between projects on the ground and their private funders. We researched, discussed with the community and presented three examples of biodiversity regeneration projects working with nature finance, including Lauriston Farm, Highlands Rewilding's Beldorney Estate and RSPB's Glencripesdale Reserve. See: https://vimeo.com/850859980 and https://vimeo.com/825026630 Key learnings were that similar ecological data were collected for baselining biodiversity, and digital sensors and methods were useful and comparable. All projects added significant social value through their work with the local communities the projects were hosted within. |
| Exploitation Route | The case studies explain business models which other nature based projects on the ground can replicate with private funders. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Environment |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI6T-IsBXWU |
| Description | The case studies have impacted the land management and nature-based project development sector, by providing How to... guidance and exemplars of best practice of the economic and social value restoration projects can provide. Our findings are impacting the public sector by highlighting real issues that policy interventions and grants can help with, for example encouraging new ideas for payments for ecosystem services, and governance frameworks to ensure their high integrity - these have been passed on in the form of policy briefings to The Scottish Government (http://dx.doi.org/10.7488/era/3384) and contributing to the British Standards Institute's Investment Integrity Standards (https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/capabilities/standards-services/the-nature-investment-standards-programme). The private sector has benefitted from the video and written case studies indicating where nature based projects can create revenues from investments, and what data they can expect from on the ground projects to verify impacts. The third/voluntary sectors, gain the benefit of the How to... content in the video and written case studies, guiding best practice in project set-up and development, especially to show societal benefit. Challenges we overcame to achieve this impact was to build close relationships with each of the three case studies - the teams with the projects, and their investors. This established trust, and encouraged an openness to sharing experiences and data. Within academia, we are just drafting the outputs now, these will take longer to get to publication. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment |
| Impact Types | Societal Economic Policy & public services |
| Description | Advice on the development of biodiversity markets in Scotland |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Description | Al McVittie & Hannah Rudman commissioned by Scottish Government to undertake research and interested parties engagement into Approaches for Measuring Biodiversity in Scotland |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Decision grade data at Glencripesdale |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Watched over 100 times, the case study documentary provides a basic training on decision grade data collection for practitioners in on the ground nature restoration projects. |
| URL | https://infinbio.org/news/decision-grade-data-glencripesdale |
| Description | Input to the British Standards Institute (BSI) Nature Investment Standards |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| URL | https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/about-bsi/uk-national-standards-body/sustainability-and-climate-actio... |
| Description | Investing in data for nature-based projects |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Watched over 120 times in the first month of publication on The Farm Advisory Service and decisiongradeiot.com websites, this video provides basic training for practitioners in the subject area. |
| URL | https://www.fas.scot/news/investing-in-data/ |
| Description | National and international engagement on high-integrity nature markets |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Description | Research into Approaches for Measuring Biodiversity, report commissioned by the Scottish Government |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Impact | Scotland has a suite of biodiversity indicators that assess broad trends in biodiversity at the national level and measure progress against biodiversity targets. However, at present there is no single agreed Scottish biodiversity metric or measurement tool to assess biodiversity at the site, or project, scale. An agreed Scottish approach to measuring biodiversity would allow for consistent and comparable assessment of losses or gains in biodiversity across sites and allow comparison and trading across sectors. The development of a biodiversity metric or measurement tool in Scotland has potential use across four main policy areas: natural capital markets, planning and development, biodiversity conservation and monitoring and agriculture. These policy areas are all at different stages of engagement with approaches to measuring biodiversity and are working largely independently within different policy landscapes. It is therefore important that research on a Scottish biodiversity metric evaluates the options that best serve Scottish interests and assesses the priorities across policy areas. ISBN 9781835213582 |
| URL | https://www.gov.scot/publications/research-approaches-measuring-biodiversity-scotland/pages/1/ |
| Description | Shaping Defra's Nature Market Framework |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nature-markets |
| Description | Shaping Scottish Government's Natural Capital Investment Framework |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Impact | Reed was appointed to the advisory board for Scottish Government's Natural Capital Investment Framework, writing substantial sections of the Framework's Discovery Phase Report, in which he helped identify critical risks to delivery, which helped shape the scope and content of the Framework, in particular in relation to stacking of payments for ecosystem services, biodiversity markets and community benefits. Reed was subsequently funded by Scottish Government to work with the Peatland Code and Woodland Carbon Code to develop high-integrity bundling and stacking of payments for biodiversity in the UK's two largest carbon markets. This will be the first time that this functionality has existed in the UK carbon markets, and will be reflected in new functionality in the UK Land Carbon Registry. He is also collaborating with Scottish Government and the two Codes to develop verifiable options for community benefit, to comply with forthcoming requirements in the Natural Capital Investment Framework. This will lead to the integration of community benefits for the first time in the UK's two largest carbon markets, and will generate significant benefits for rural communities across Scotland (where this will be required) and the rest of the UK (where project developers choose to include community benefit). The Framework builds on work led by Reed on the design of blended finance mechanisms that could responsibly scale the operation of the Peatland Code across Scotland. Although developed and trialled for peatlands, if successful, the goal is to apply these mechanisms across land uses, habitats and ecosystem services in each of the UK nations. This research also provided evidence which policy officials have confirmed informed Scottish Government's decision to include a Land Emissions Carbon Tax in the 2024 Budget. |
| Description | Team Members chaired a national ecosystem markets policy oversight group meeting |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Impact | The policy makers meeting and discussing will lead to better environmental sustainability outcomes for the UK as a whole, as natural capital markets emerge with higher integrity dues to discussions and knowledge sharing. |
| Description | Scottish Nature Finance Pioneers Network partnership |
| Organisation | Scottish Environment Protection Agency |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | We have hosted several webinars and discussions on the network, and used it to host the survey. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Promotion of the survey, webinars and discussion. |
| Impact | How To... case studies shared between ecology and economics disciplines |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | A webinar on the Aonachadh case studies - Recipes for Recovery |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This lunch and learn, held on 9th January 2024, presented three examples of biodiversity regeneration projects working with nature finance, including Lauriston Farm, Highlands Rewilding's Beldorney Estate and RSPB's Glencripesdale Reserve. Presenters included: Leonie Alexander (External Director) and Rob Davidson (Farm Co-ordinator) from Lauriston Farm Dr Penelope Whitehorn (Co-chief Scientist) from Highlands Rewilding Izzy Baker (Site Manager) and Tasmin Fletcher (Warden) from RSPB Find out more: https://www.lauristonfarm.scot/ https://www.highlandsrewilding.co.uk/ https://community.rspb.org.uk/ourwork... Hosted by members of a NERC-funded project team, including Julia McCarthy (SRUC), Dr Hannah Rudman, Dr Chris Ellis (RBGE) and Professor Marc Metzger (University of Edinburgh), and in association with the Nature Finance Pioneers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI6T-IsBXWU |
| Description | Centre for Greening Finance and Investment's Annual Forum 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Hannah Rudman spoke about how nature tech can provide decision grade data to investors in nature-based solutions projects at the Centre for Greening Finance and Investment's Annual Forum at Westminster. Outcomes are that the decision grade data theme is likely to become a spoke focus for the Integrating Finance and Biodiversity Programme of NERC in 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.cgfi.ac.uk/2023/06/cgfi-annual-forum-2023/ |
| Description | Decision grade data at Glencripesdale - case study video produced for RSPB Scotland and the Alliance for Scotland's Rainforest |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This case study video from team member Dr Hannah Rudman explains why decision grade data is important for measuring, verifying and reporting improvements in nature based projects, focussing on the rainforest restoration at RSPB Scotland's Glencripesdale rainforest reserve. Decision-grade data is trustable and high quality enough to attract investment into nature restoration projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://vimeo.com/sruc/decisiongradedataglencripesdale |
| Description | Hannah Rudman presented at Nature Finance Scotland Forum 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Hannah Rudman presented RSPB Glencripesdale's dMRV approach at Nature Finance Scotland Forum 2023, which she also co-organised with the Ecosystems Knowledge Network. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://ecosystemsknowledge.net/event/nature-finance-scotland-2023/nature-finance-scotland-2023-prog... |
| Description | Investing in data for nature-based projects - a case study from Lauriston Farm |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This case study video from SRUC's Thriving Natural Capital Centre explains why it is useful to invest in data collection to establish baselines, and prove changes through time. The Lauriston Farm team and their investor Federated Hermes Ltd., discuss how they are collecting data to prove the social, economic and environmental impacts of their regenerative agriculture and community engagement practices. Presented by Dr Hannah Rudman. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://vimeo.com/850859980 |
| Description | Webinar hosted on the Scottish Finance Pioneers Network on results of survey with network members |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Ninety-six members of Scottish Nature Finance Pioneers completed a survey over the summer of 2023. They shared their experiences and hopes for future focus of a nature finance network. The survey was conducted by Eric Jensen and Julia McCarthy with Hannah Rudman, and forms part of the Aonachadh project, bringing together a wide range of parties interested in investable biodiversity uplift projects. the webinar was the opportunity to present the results to the network members. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://infinbio.org/news-and-media/news/sruc-holds-workshop-share-feedback-scotish-nature-finance-p... |