Defra has announced grants of between £10,000 and £100,000 to support the development of projects that help farmers gain revenue from ecosystem services and create a model that can be scaled up for use by other farmers. Examples include mechanisms to enable the selling of carbon units from woodland creation or peatland restoration, selling biodiversity units and ‘catchment services’, such as improved water quality and natural flood management. The grants are to help farmers to:
- get support from professional advisors to develop a project, address barriers to investment and present an attractive case for potential investors
- build capability to attract financial investment into natural environment projects
- develop a market for ecosystem services (such as investment or trading platforms)
Applications will open on 11 December until 16 February 2024 and if you are interested in exploring whether this grant fund might help farmers in your area, please email: Veronica@thefarmernetwork.co.uk. We will be discussing this at the workshop on 7th December at the Gamekeepers Inn.