Highlands Rewilding, which raised the money to buy the 3,500-acre Tayvallich Estate for £10.5 million earlier this year, has confirmed that ‘biodiversity credits’ will form an important part of its business plan going forward.
Biodiversity credits are a new type of financial instrument.
Ecologists measure improvements in the state of the land and its inhabitants and that information is packaged into ‘biodiversity credits’ – which some financial analysts are calling an actual ‘security’.
These financial instruments can be bought by companies that want to show they are making a positive contribution to the planet.
Highlands Rewilding also confirmed a Bloomberg report that it has signed an agreement with a European firm on its plans, but would not give details.
“It is a corporate partnership. We are taking it as a sign that corporates are becoming more interested,” said Frances Mills, head of marketing at Highlands Rewilding.
Rewilding companies are hoping that Scotland will soon pass a law that forces companies to make up for their environmental impact by funding bioversity elsewhere. Similar regulation is due to take effect in England early next year.
The Bloomberg report said that Fintech firm CreditNature forecasts that the biodiversity credits market could be worth up to $35 billion by 2050, while Inevitable Policy Response, a think tank, expects it to be closer to $18 billion per year.
The report also said biodiversity credits generated from Highlands Rewilding’s own estates as well as those it hopes to eventually manage for other people, are expected to generate up to £70 million. Highlands Rewilding did not dispute the figure.
On the potential size of the biodiversity credit market, Highlands Rewilding CEO Jeremy Leggett told Bloomberg: “We’re right on the frontier operating with huge uncertainties.
“The good news is that one struggles these days to find anybody who doesn’t think this brave new world is coming.”
In the report, Leggett acknowledged his firm’s business model is “a punt” on governments implementing the land use changes needed to reach their net zero and nature protection targets.
“You’ve just got to do the best guesstimating that you can until the policy regime descends,” he said. “I’m very bullish.”
Tayvallich Estate stretches seven miles from Tayvallich village to the point where Loch Sween meets the Sound of Jura.
Highlands Rewilding has two other rewilding sites – Bunloit in Inverness-shire and Beldorney in Aberdeenshire.
Meanwhile, Highlands Rewilding also announced this week it has been successful in its bid for funding under the Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland (FIRNS) scheme, co-funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with the Scottish Government and NatureScot.
It said its project “Joint Ventures for Scalable Community Benefits from Rewilding” is one of 27 projects in the first round of funding from “this innovative Scottish funding programme”.
The £194,700 grant, 50 per cent from NatureScot and 50 per cent from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, will fund an 18-month project across the three estates owned by Highlands Rewilding.
“The outcome of the project will be a series of investment-ready business plans for community joint ventures” said Highlands Rewilding.
“The joint ventures will capitalise on environmental improvements from rewilding, and the valuable ecosystem services they generate.
“They will be a mechanism for involving more people in nature restoration, boosting the economy, skills development, job creation and cohesion in local communities.
“Following our recent publication of our roadmap for community engagement, this project will aim to produce new standards for community engagement and benefits from natural capital projects that are transferrable across the field as a whole.”
Calum Brown, co-chief scientist at Highlands Rewilding, said: “This project will enable us to take a huge step towards our goal of ensuring that rewilding leads to increased community prosperity.”