What does new natural capital toolkit offer farmers?

Defra and an environmental company have joined forces to produce a new website and online toolkit to help farmers exploit natural capital markets.

The Farming Toolkit for Assessing Nature Market Opportunities is a free, web-based resource for farmers in England.

Toolkit aims

The toolkit is designed to give farmers a sense of the right questions to ask, and provide a framework for thinking about their nature market opportunities.

It seeks to explain nature markets with a step-by-step approach to help farmers consider whether the opportunities will work for their businesses.

This will help prepare farmers for potential obstacles, and empower them in negotiations with key stakeholders.

The toolkit was commissioned by Defra and developed by the Green Finance Institute (GFI), an independent company, part-funded by government to help the transition to a net-zero, nature-positive economy.

More than 70% of the UK is managed by farmers, and they are crucial in helping Defra meet its nature and climate targets, according to GFI director Helen Avery.

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Nature markets, like carbon credits, biodiversity net gain, and nutrient neutrality, present farmers with opportunities to get paid by the private sector in exchange for the delivery of environmental outcomes, Helen says.

But she also elaborated that these markets will need to be made more accessible for farmers to deliver nature-positive outcomes at scale.

Many farmers are unsure of how nature markets work, what rules govern them, and what their participation may involve, alongside their traditional farm business activities.

Farmers need to better understand these uncertainties to make sure they can promote themselves, and ask the right questions of new opportunities.  

Development

The toolkit has been developed in consultation with more than 100 farmers, and it was created after the GFI’s Financing a Farming Transition Report, released in March 2023, revealed that a lack of clarity around nature markets was impeding farmers’ engagement.

Additionally, it showed that collaborative farming ventures needed support and knowledge sharing to get off the ground.

The toolkit has also been designed to be a key resource for the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund Round 3, a development fund aimed specifically at farmers wanting to explore their nature market opportunities, with grants of up to £100,000.

It will be used in the assessment process, monitoring and evaluation framework, and community of practice.      

How to use the toolkit  

The toolkit provides an introduction to nature markets, a more detailed overview of what participation looks like, and case studies of farmers around the country that are already taking steps, says Helen.

No data is needed from farmers to use the toolkit, and it does not promote nature markets as the best option for everyone.

The website’s introduction to nature markets also lists and explains the six most commonly asked questions.

It contains a glossary of key terms and useful resources from other organisations around nature markets.

If and when farmers are ready to explore the process of engaging, they can then move on to an area of the website referred to be users as the Snake.

This is an interactive diagram that breaks the journey of building a nature market deal into eight milestones and two constant horizontal factors that run throughout the process. 

Each milestone on the Snake diagram explores what is entailed, with a set of questions for farmers to consider, case studies of farmers that have already engaged, and other useful resources.

Typically, the process starts with the first milestone, Assessing Land Opportunities, through to the eighth, Signing Legal Contracts.

Because no two farms are the same, the toolkit has been designed to be flexible and capable of encompassing different activities at different times, explains Helen.

The first three milestones come under the heading “Groundwork”. This section highlights steps farmers can take to be prepared for future nature market developments, if they are not comfortable engaging now.

The remaining milestones are grouped into “Market Engagement”, and identify actions that farmers can consider when actively pursuing a nature market deal or trade.