Environmental Farmers Group delivers landmark nutrient offset opportunity

EFG Member, the Longford Estate, has delivered one of the largest nutrient mitigation projects in the Hampshire Avon river catchment. It will provide much needed phosphate credits to unlock the building of thousands of new homes from Salisbury to Christchurch. There has been a moratorium on housing developments in the catchment due to the Government’s binding target to reduce the flow of damaging nutrients into water courses by 15% by 2028. The pioneering project is a blueprint for future EFG nutrient neutrality and Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) projects across England.

Combined with its developing sister environmental cooperatives the EFG now represents an impressive 957,000 acres or 4% of England’s farmed area managed by 718 farmers (as at the date of this editorial) who support the central aims of biodiversity and species recovery by 2030, Clean Water and Carbon Net Zero by 2040. By working with developers and other natural capital investors, the groups are committed to delivering environmental improvement on a landscape scale across the UK. EFG is a unique farmer-led cooperative designed to help its members access natural capital markets. Its equalisation model means income from every trade is distributed throughout the group.

The EFG offers a high level of assurance to investors through professional support, environmental auditing and commercial expertise provided by Natural Capital Advisory (NCA) and its partnership with the UK’s leading ecological research charity the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT). NCA Commercial Officer Tom Vacher said:

“We are delighted to announce that the Longford Estate Project has now been approved by Natural England (NE) and signed off by the Local Planning Authority (LPA), enabling phosphate credits to be sold and allocated across the river catchment.”

In order to prevent an increase in pollution from sewage waste, NE has introduced a Nutrient Neutrality requirement that means new houses cannot be built in the Hampshire Avon river catchment without first demonstrating that it will not result in an increase in nutrient pollution. Each new home increases the nutrient load in the river and therefore the developer must mitigate that additional amount by funding the removal of the pollutant elsewhere. House builders can do this by buying credits generated by EFG projects.

The project on the Longford Estate is designed to reduce the amount of phosphate entering the Hampshire Avon river catchment, which is a Special Area of Conservation and one of the UK’s few chalk stream river systems. Southern England holds 85% of this globally rare habitat.

The project will be integrated into a wider Catchment Conservation Plan developed to improve river health, boost wildlife recovery and reduce GHG emissions across the region. EFG is developing similar catchment plans across England to generate nutrient neutrality credits and BNG units.

Accredited by a trusted body, brokering a blended finance model

The environmental auditing and monitoring of EFG projects is carried out by Natural Capital Advisory (NCA). Funding will be a combination of public money and private finance from sponsorship, green investments and offset markets. NCA Chief Exec Christopher Sparrow said:

“In an often confusing and uncertain emerging market, which requires long-term commitments, landowners and investors can be reassured that NCA has the right professional experience to deliver the highest quality advice and ongoing monitoring service. Our partnership with EFG will appeal to investors who want to see tangible guaranteed environmental outcomes and contribute to the restoration of some of our most iconic landscapes, places they can visit to see the improvements for themselves.”