Yorkshire Wildlife Trust: Exploring natural capital for peatland restoration and nature-based solutions in Humberhead Levels
Exploring natural capital for thriving farm enterprises
Client: Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, in collaboration with Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust
Location: Humberhead Levels
Date: Started in March 2024, finished in February 2025
Total project area: Approximately 420 hectares
Habitats: 7 farms, 4 areas, with a mix of existing arable rotation, and grazed grassland.
Some of the existing land was flooding due to river levels. The proposal was the creation of a mosaic of grassland, floodplain and natural rewetting of the land.
“We worked with Accelar on an ambitious project looking to build a financial business case for the restoration of lowland agricultural peat. Due to this being undertaken in parallel to the water level management plan design, there were many moving parts to the project and Accelar were adaptable and understood the wider context of this workstream.
The financial modelling had a comprehensive level of detail and both the presented and reporting outputs summarised this data effectively. I enjoyed working with Accelar and would look forward to working with them again in the future if the opportunity arose!”
Mike Jones - Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
Project Overview:
This Environment Agency–funded project was part of the Lowland Agricultural Peat Water Development pilot (LAPWDP). The project was delivered by Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trusts, reporting to the Humberhead Levels partnership; a coalition including the EA, Yorkshire, Nottingham and Lincolnshire Wildlife Trusts, Natural England and Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council. The LAPWDP scheme was designed to provide evidence to help deliver the recommendations of the Lowland Agricultural Peat Task Force Chair’s Report (more commonly known as the Caudwell Report).
The scheme funded the creation of new costed plans for water management in lowland peat areas in England, that seek to preserve peat soil carbon and support continued agricultural production. It worked with 7 farmers to explore the opportunities associated with rewetting and peatland restoration.
Our Role:
Our role was to work closely with the landowners across multiple counties to explore how lowland peat restoration could offer a diversification of income stream alongside existing farm businesses. We assessed current farm operations, alongside natural capital solutions to determine the financial viability of water management and habitat restoration within the catchment. Effective stakeholder engagement was central to aligning environmental objectives with sustainable farm business models.
Our Services:
We provided expert financial modelling and stakeholder engagement to support landowner participation and ecosystem service delivery.
Our key services included:
Developing tailored financial models for each of the seven landowners, covering:
Business as usual
Existing agri-environment options
Private and blended finance mechanisms
Consulting with potential buyers of ecosystem services to understand their interest and demand in the potential credits that could be issued by the project.
Shaping a business model and route to implementation, including exploration of market platforms as to how the Humberhead Levels could form a cluster or aggregated option to deliver a suite of ecosystem services.
Engaging all project partners to refine and validate proposals, ensuring expertise was sought from the existing steering group, with input from locals and technical experts.
Defining the governance arrangements for landowners to form a legal entity, and how to bring in the technical oversight and support of the Wildlife Trust and potential funders.
Delivering technical modelling to assess:
308 hectares for private finance potential
54 hectares of floodplain wetland mosaic creation
2,682 tonnes of carbon sequestration through peatland restoration
1,358 biodiversity units generated
Challenges:
Project milestones were compressed due to extended optioneering, leaving just one month instead of three to deliver outputs. We responded rapidly, drawing on our expert network, including a catchment platform operation specialist to help deliver in a condensed period. Through support of our associates, we were able to deliver within the project timescale.
At the same time, we faced significant market failures, particularly in biodiversity net gain (BNG), as lowland fen habitats are deemed irreplaceable and thus not supported by viable nature markets, limiting restoration funding opportunities. A key learning of the project is that of market failures. With insufficient demand and price for peatland carbon, the project would be over-reliant on the creation of BNG units, at which point, the project isn’t necessarily maximising peatland restoration.
Total climate change benefits of peatland restoration national are estimated to be £109 billion (UK Natural Capital Accounts: Peatlands 2021 UK natural capital - Office for National Statistics) but that is not representative of the value that market forces have placed on it to fund that restoration.
In its current state, whilst there are some benefits for landowners of aggregating, that is independent of peat restoration due to the immaturity of markets around water storage, quality improvements and in the case of peatland carbon, a low price. We explored a range of other ecosystem markets to diversify income streams and reduce risk, however it was a key learning of nature markets in the context of lowland agricultural peat restoration.
Impact & Benefits
We delivered a comprehensive feasibility study that empowered farmers with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions about how natural capital improvements can co-exist with their existing farm enterprises. By exploring a range of tailored options, we supported their active participation in nature-based solutions.
Recognising a major barrier in carbon financing, we leveraged our networks to engage the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and highlight the limitations of the Peatland Code for lowland settings.
Revisions to the code are now underway, paving the way for future lowland restoration projects to access carbon finance.