Invest in nature to future-proof against climate risks

NatureScot’s ambitious new four-year plan aims to accelerate nature recovery and build climate resilience in Scotland. It has a clear focus on working with businesses, investors, local partners and landowners to create new ways to support long-term resilience, responsible investment and community benefits through nature restoration.

The plan outlines the urgent need to scale up nature restoration and the overall investment needed to pay for vital work.

Failing to invest in nature recovery and climate resilience will leave businesses exposed to increasingly frequent and severe events and other detrimental effects. Flooding, drought and wildfire are already affecting food production, livestock farming and distilleries in Scotland. More widely, climate events can cause disruption to services, damage to infrastructure and employee absence.

NatureScot’s plan identifies a number of solutions to tackle the climate risks Scottish businesses and people are now facing. This includes peatland and woodland restoration, coastal adaptation and natural flood management, all of which can help ensure long term productivity, mitigate against future costs and generate benefits for the workforce and wider communities.

Working in close partnership with the Scottish Government, investors, local partners and landowners, NatureScot seeks to help fund and attract private finance to support large scale nature restoration and resilience projects. 

Recent examples include new Landscape Enterprise Networks (LENS) in the Leven catchment in Fife and emerging LENS projects in the Tweed and Spey catchments. Alongside a new Scottish Rivers Fund being launched later this year, other mechanisms such as the Peatland Code and Woodland Carbon Code are already helping to attract private finance to pay for nature restoration.

NatureScot will continue to help businesses identify and access restoration opportunities by launching a digital platform that will provide investors and buyers with the most relevant opportunities available in Scotland from a wide range of habitats and locations.

A new market in nature finance is steadily growing. This will help co-fund nature restoration alongside public grant schemes and philanthropic funding for nature, helping Scotland to scale up nature restoration in light of the climate challenge.

NatureScot’s Director of Green Economy, Robbie Kernahan said:

“Restoring nature not only offers great rewards for biodiversity, but it tackles the very real climate risks many businesses, farmers and communities are now facing. By working together, the private sector, communities and landowners can help generate these rewards for everyone.

“Our plan focuses on increasing public and private finance for nature through a series of highly investable nature recovery and resilience projects.

“Investment that protects and restores our nature makes sense for our planet as well as making sound financial sense. It protects investors’ assets against further climate-related risk and protects communities from the impacts of flooding and extreme weather.”