Bristol Avon Catchment Market settles its first round of green trades

The Bristol Avon Catchment Market (BACM), operated by EnTrade, has successfully settled its first market round and demonstrated that the catchment market concept works.

The BACM matches up sellers of nature-based environmental services with buyers across the catchment, enabling the delivery of verified environmental outcomes and supporting nature’s recovery.

EnTrade confirmed that it had been able to successfully match buyer bids and supplier offers in the first round, which ran in May, for 1.46 hectares of grassland, scrub mosaic and wetland projects, financed from the sale of rights to 7.137 Biodiversity Units. Farmers received an average of £36.7k per hectare to establish their projects. They will also receive annual payments for land use and maintenance over the next 30 years.

The development of the market was made possible by a Green Recovery Challenge Fund grant received by the Avon Wildlife Trust and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. BACM has now opened to expressions of interest for round two.