SUSTAINABILITY / SECTOR LENSES
Land & Nature
Rewilding, nature-based solutions, biodiversity credits, and landscape stewardship. The layer where all value chains begin.
In brief
Land and nature is the foundational sector in the sustainability framework. The ecosystem services generated by well-managed landscapes, carbon sequestration, biodiversity, clean water, flood mitigation, recreational access and cultural value, are the inputs to every supply chain, every carbon credit, and every nature market mechanism. This sector covers the organisations and individuals who manage land primarily for nature outcomes: conservation bodies, land management charities, rewilding projects, estates engaging with nature markets, and the advisors and technology providers who support them.
Two 2026 signals frame the sector. The PIK Planetary Health Check confirmed ocean acidification as the seventh of nine planetary boundaries now breached, which elevates coastal and marine nature-based solutions alongside terrestrial ones. And UNEP's State of Finance for Nature 2026 put the gap in stark terms: roughly US$220 billion a year flows to nature-based solutions against US$7.3 trillion that is nature-negative, a 30-to-1 imbalance the nature markets in this section exist to help close.
Land & Nature is not a sector that connects to the landscape layer of our framework. It is the landscape layer. Everything above it — ecosystem services, value chains, corporate disclosure, financial flows — depends on what happens here.
Actor roles in this sector
Stewards of landscape-level ecosystem services. The originating actors in nature markets — their management decisions determine what carbon is sequestered, what biodiversity is generated, and what water quality is maintained.
WWF, Fauna & Flora, Wildlife Trusts, local land trusts. Manage land directly, aggregate smallholder projects, advocate for policy, and increasingly structure finance for landscape-scale restoration.
Developers purchasing BNG units. Corporates buying voluntary carbon or biodiversity credits to meet commitments. Public bodies funding habitat creation through ELMS and Landscape Recovery.
Natural England (BNG, SSSI, Landscape Recovery), Environment Agency (water), Forestry Commission (woodland carbon), DEFRA (ELMS, Rural Payments Agency). Set the rules, administer the payments, and build the spatial planning frameworks for nature recovery.
Satellite monitoring (Planet, Satelligence), ground-truthing platforms, registry software (Verra, Gold Standard, Natural England habitat registers). The data infrastructure that makes nature market claims credible.
Connect land managers with corporate buyers. Aggregate projects for scale. Provide market access for landowners who could not otherwise reach institutional buyers. Quality and transparency varies significantly across the market.
The framework landscape
The land and nature sector operates across three framework types: UK domestic market mechanisms (public payments and regulated nature markets), international voluntary markets, and the corporate nature commitments that drive demand for both.
UK domestic mechanisms
Mandatory for most English developments since November 2023. Developers must achieve 10% net gain in biodiversity value, calculated via DEFRA's Biodiversity Metric 4.0. Where on-site gain is insufficient, developers purchase habitat units from off-site providers, typically farmers and land managers. 30-year legal management commitments. Natural England administers the habitat bank register. From 2 November 2026 BNG also becomes mandatory for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (with a 0.2ha small-site exemption expected), expanding habitat-unit demand to major infrastructure.
UK government-endorsed Quality Assurance Standard for woodland carbon credits from new woodland creation. Projects validated against Carbon Plans; credits verified at regular intervals. The primary route for UK forestry into the voluntary carbon market. Administered by Scottish Forestry; registry on UK Land Carbon Registry.
Verification standard for carbon credits from peatland restoration. Peat is one of the densest terrestrial carbon stores — degraded peat is a significant emissions source; restored peat sequesters over time. Growing corporate demand driven by net zero commitments and TNFD nature disclosures.
Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI): farm-level environmental actions paid per hectare or per action. Landscape Recovery (LR): long-term large-scale habitat and ecosystem restoration projects, typically 500-5,000 hectares, funded over 20+ years. Landscape Heritage (LH): not yet launched. The primary public funding mechanism for nature recovery on English farmland.
DEFRA's mapping of priority areas for nature recovery investment. Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS), prepared by Lead Local Flood Authorities, identify the best opportunities for nature recovery in each area. Strategic planning context for BNG, ELMS, and private nature investment. England's first Land Use Framework (March 2026) now sits above these as the national long-term approach to balancing nature, food production, housing and infrastructure (its links to the NPPF are not yet resolved).
The UK's first government-backed nature-market standards. BSI Flex 702 v2.0 (Biodiversity) and 704 v2.0 (Nutrient) are released for adoption, with 705 (Community) in consultation. They set the investor-confidence floor under BNG and the Big Nature Impact Fund, giving common rules for how nature-market claims are made and verified.
A blended-finance fund taking UK nature markets from policy experiment to investable infrastructure. First close reached £64.6 million (£30 million Defra first-loss capital alongside Zurich, Admiral, Esmée Fairbairn and the Church of England), targeting £90 to 120 million. The strongest signal yet that institutional capital will fund UK landscape restoration at scale.
Farmland with particularly high biodiversity value, typically extensive low-input systems. HNV identification informs agri-environment payment eligibility and landscape-scale conservation priorities. No single formal scheme in England, but concept underpins ELMS targeting.
International voluntary markets & global targets
The dominant global voluntary carbon standard. Covers REDD+ (avoided deforestation), afforestation/reforestation, improved forest management, and soil carbon. Required for projects targeting international corporate buyers.
Premium voluntary carbon standard with co-benefit requirements (SDG alignment). Typically commands a price premium over VCS credits. Strong in cookstoves, water, and renewable energy; growing in land-based projects.
Framework for international carbon trading between governments. Article 6.4 creates a new UN-supervised mechanism for voluntary credits. Corresponding Adjustments (CAs) will be required for credits used toward national NDCs. This is reshaping the voluntary carbon market: credits without a CA cannot be used by companies toward claims that overlap with host country targets.
Governments committed to protecting 30% of land and ocean by 2030 at COP15. Creates the spatial planning context for all nature recovery investment — identifying which landscapes should be prioritised and what corporate and private finance should align with.
Corporate demand — what drives buyers
Nature-related financial disclosures require companies to assess their dependencies and impacts on nature. This drives demand for verified nature outcomes in corporate supply chains and investment portfolios, and therefore demand for the nature market mechanisms that land managers supply. In April 2026 the ISSB took on nature disclosures as an IFRS Practice Statement (exposure draft due at CBD COP17, October 2026) and TNFD began handing over its technical work: the TNFD-to-ISSB handoff mirrors the earlier TCFD-to-ISSB climate journey. TNFD adoption has passed 730 organisations.
Corporate nature targets covering land, freshwater, ocean, and biodiversity. Fresh (no net loss) land commitments and specific habitat targets require verified outcomes — which land managers and nature market mechanisms provide.
Residual emissions that companies cannot eliminate are increasingly expected to be compensated by high-quality nature-based removals — particularly from credible, verified land management projects.
Where land managers typically start
The first step for any land manager entering nature markets is a baseline: what biodiversity does the land currently support? What carbon does it store? What water services does it provide? Without this, no market, standard, or payment scheme can operate credibly.
1. Baseline assessment
DEFRA Biodiversity Metric 4.0 survey. Soil carbon assessment (sampling or modelling). Habitat map. Water features and quality. This is the foundation for every market mechanism that follows.
2. Market mechanism selection
Which mechanisms fit the land (BNG, Woodland Carbon, Peatland Code, ELMS tier)? Which buyer markets are active in this geography? What is the land manager's time horizon and capital position?
3. Additionality design
Nature markets are additionality-based: they pay for improvement, not for the status quo. The management plan must credibly demonstrate what the land will become, not what it currently is. Verification methodology is selected at this stage.
The additionality principle: Nature markets pay for improvement above a credible counterfactual baseline. A land manager who understands the gap between what their land currently supports and what it could support under improved management — and how to measure and verify that gap credibly — is the one who can genuinely access these markets. Aspiration without a baseline is not an asset.
This sector is the landscape layer
In our six-layer sustainability framework, L2 is Landscapes & Jurisdictions — the specific geographies where ecosystems, communities, and economies intersect. Land & Nature as a sector is the same thing: organisations that manage these landscapes and the ecosystem services they generate.
Every ecosystem service that flows upward through the framework — carbon sequestration into L4 carbon markets, biodiversity into BNG markets, water quality into regulatory compliance, cultural value into planning decisions — originates here. Every supply chain, every corporate disclosure about nature dependencies, every financial return on a real asset, traces back to the condition and management of land.
Explore our landscape work →The Pandion view
The most common mistake in nature markets is confusing aspiration with asset.
Land managers are told they can generate significant income from carbon credits, BNG, and nature payments simultaneously — and they can, but only if the land genuinely supports the claimed outcomes, and if the management plan credibly delivers additionality. The second most common mistake is assuming markets will value what the land already does. They pay for improvement, not status quo.
Stacking is real but requires careful design.
Multiple income streams (BNG units, ELMS payments, carbon credits, agri-environment payments) can be layered on the same land — but only where the funding rules permit it and where the outcomes are genuinely additional across schemes. This requires careful sequencing and legal structuring. Not every combination is permissible; not every landowner's situation is the same.
The voluntary carbon market has split into two markets, and only one of them is healthy.
Data now confirms the quality bifurcation: CCP-labelled credits command roughly a 3x premium, with Tier 1 credits up 46% against Tier 3, while overall volumes stay depressed. For land managers the practical signal is that integrity is the asset. The first CCP-eligible agricultural soil carbon methodologies (Verra VM0042 and the Climate Action Reserve Soil Enrichment Protocol) now give UK regenerative land a route into the premium tier, though VM0042 is under revision, so methodology choice is not yet settled.
The Article 6 transition is reshaping the voluntary carbon market in ways that most UK land managers have not yet registered.
As Corresponding Adjustments become standard practice, credits without CAs will face increasing scrutiny from corporate buyers. This primarily affects international projects, but it is reshaping buyer expectations globally, including for UK projects in the voluntary market.
Where to go next
Agriculture & Food Systems
The productive layer above landscape — supply chains, EUDR, and the frameworks linking farms to markets
TNFD / LEAP
Nature-related financial disclosures — the corporate obligation that drives demand for land & nature outcomes
Landscapes
Specific geographies — where the abstract frameworks meet real land, real communities, and real ecosystem outcomes