The Signal

After a year-long national consultation, Defra published the Land Use Framework for England, the first coherent national spatial plan for how land should be used to 2050. It explicitly validates habitat restoration alongside food production, housing and clean energy as complementary rather than competing demands. For nature markets, the most significant element is the formal commitment to allowing public payments (SFI, Countryside Stewardship) to stack with private nature market income — following the Corry Review recommendation. Local Nature Recovery Strategies are now referenced in national planning policy for the first time.

At this year's Edie sustainability conference (Business Design Centre, London), the floor conversations marked a shift. Companies are no longer asking what TNFD is. They are asking what they can actually buy, what verified nature action looks like in practice, and how to report it. The gap between disclosure appetite and available product is closing faster than expected. Willis Towers Watson independently raised the question of nature credit insurance — a signal that the risk market is beginning to price nature outcomes.

The Strategic Nature Network's first blueprint — the spatial map identifying where nature investment should be directed across England — publishes on 5 June 2026. Nature Investment Zones (NIZs), the delivery structures within that network, require a minimum of 10,000 hectares and declare their natural capital revenue stacks in Section 3 of the registration form. Early registered zones will be mapped against the demand-side overlay — where developer contributions and ESG capital need to go. The window to register ahead of the blueprint is open now.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature released landmark guidelines for implementing rewilding projects worldwide, developed through seven regional workshops across Europe, North America and Australia. The document explicitly links rewilding to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets and identifies contributions to 8 Sustainable Development Goals. Critically, the guidelines recognise rewilding's potential to help humanity stay within the safe operating space for 6 of the 9 Planetary Boundaries. This is the scientific and policy validation that the rewilding movement has been building toward.

Following the February 2024 mandate for major developments, Biodiversity Net Gain became mandatory for small sites from April 2025, completing the rollout across essentially all planning applications in England. Developers must now demonstrate a minimum 10% net gain in biodiversity, secured for 30 years via Section 106 agreement or Conservation Covenant. This has created a functioning compliance market for habitat credits, with Biodiversity Gain Sites Registers tracking all offsite BNG to prevent double-counting. The demand side of the UK nature credit market is now statutory.

The independent Corry Review into private finance for nature recovery recommended that public scheme payments and private nature market income should be allowed to stack on the same piece of land, rather than one cancelling the other out. The government formally accepted this recommendation, removing a critical structural barrier to blended finance in UK nature markets. A landowner can now receive Sustainable Farming Incentive payments and income from voluntary nature credit sales simultaneously — significantly strengthening the financial case for entering long-term restoration agreements.

The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures released its final recommendations framework for adoption, following two years of beta testing with over 200 organisations worldwide. Built on the architecture of TCFD but applied to nature, TNFD uses the LEAP approach (Locate, Evaluate, Assess, Prepare) and four disclosure pillars: Governance, Strategy, Risk and Impact Management, and Metrics and Targets. Within months of launch, over 400 organisations had committed to TNFD-aligned reporting. This created the disclosure infrastructure that voluntary nature credit buyers need to justify purchases to boards and auditors.

Under Schedule 14 of the Environment Act 2021, Biodiversity Net Gain became a mandatory requirement for major developments in England from 12 February 2024. Developers must achieve a minimum 10% improvement in biodiversity metric score, with habitat gains secured for at least 30 years. This created the first statutory demand for nature credits in England, establishing a compliance market that runs alongside — but is distinct from — voluntary nature markets. The Biodiversity Metric 4.0 became the standard measurement tool.

At CBD COP15 in Montreal, 196 nations agreed the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, committing to protect and effectively manage 30% of land and ocean by 2030. This is the 30by30 target. The framework also includes Target 2 (restore 30% of all degraded ecosystems) and Target 19 (mobilise $200 billion per year for biodiversity). This is the international policy moment from which the current wave of nature finance activity flows. It gave governments the mandate to create national frameworks, which in England became the Land Use Framework and the Species Abundance targets under the Environment Act.

The Environment Act 2021 is the piece of legislation from which almost everything in the UK nature market flows. It introduced mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain, Local Nature Recovery Strategies, Conservation Covenants, legally binding species abundance targets, and the Office for Environmental Protection. It is the reason that BNG credits exist, that LNRSs are being written, that Conservation Covenants are available as a land security instrument, and that the 30by30 commitment has statutory backing in England. If you work in UK nature finance, every conversation eventually traces back to this Act.