Defra updates on nature markets' progress as Lloyds becomes the first Projects for Nature funder

Lloyds Banking Group has become the first organisation to provide funding through the Government’s Projects for Nature platform.

Launched a year ago, the platform seeks to join up donors like Lloyds with a portfolio of 25 nature recovery projects which have been screened by Defra, the Environment Agency and Natural England.

Lloyds contributed £250,000 which will go to three projects: Weald to Waves, which will create a 100-mile nature recovery corridor, connecting over 20,000ha of habitats along three main rivers in Sussex; Cumbrian catchment-based project Resilient Glenderamackin; and the restoration of 2.6km of wetland on a site nestled between Mam Tor and Kinder Scout in the Peak District.

The news came as the government published a one-year on update on its Nature Markets Framework, which seeks to scale up private finance into nature recovery, the ecosystem market and sustainable farming. The update also set out planned next steps to close the nature funding gap in England through accelerating the development of efficient, high integrity nature markets. The government wants to grow annual private investment flows to nature to at least £500m every year by 2027 in England, rising to more than £1bn by 2030.

The British Standards Institution is soon to launch a consultation on its first Nature Investment Standard, setting overarching principles for UK nature markets.