Potential to fund arable rewilding in England with biodiversity credits.
Marshall CAM, Bragg JWK, Porcher HS, de Klee ID, Muscatt G
Rewilding
Wildflower-rich rewilded land hosts 56% more rare invertebrate species and a third more pollinators than plowed fields — the insects that visit your garden depend on exactly these kinds of refuges surviving in the wider landscape.
Scientists compared a farm that was returned to wild nature 20 years ago with a conventional crop farm, using DNA from the air, soil, and ground to count every creature they could find. The rewilded land won on almost every measure — more rare species, more bees and butterflies, healthier soil fungi. They then tried to figure out whether new 'biodiversity credit' markets, where developers pay for nature improvements elsewhere, could fund more projects like it — and found the math currently doesn't add up without combining multiple funding streams.
Key Findings
The rewilded Knepp Estate had 167% more species with a conservation designation and 56% more rare invertebrate species than the conventional arable farm.
Rewilding produced 33% more pollinator species and 25% more beneficial fungal partners for plants, while reducing plant-damaging fungi by 21%.
Voluntary biodiversity credits at £23/credit would generate only £1.2–1.6 million over 30 years — roughly 15 times less than project costs — though England's regulatory habitat market could yield up to £68.9 million over the same period.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A 20-year-old rewilded estate in England harbors dramatically more biodiversity than conventional farmland, and researchers calculated what that nature recovery could be worth on emerging biodiversity credit markets — finding current credit prices cover only a fraction of project costs.
Abstract Preview
Emerging biodiversity credit markets are promoted globally as a solution to financing nature recovery at scale. In southern England, which has experienced particularly strong declines in biodiversi...
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