News: Leven Carrs Wetland Landscape Recovery project aims to expand environmental opportunities

Over the summer, Accelar have been working with Albanwise Environment on its Leven Carrs Landscape Recovery project, helping to define the business and financial opportunities associated with the creation of a landscape-scale, dynamic wetland. The project, based in East Yorkshire, is home to an abundance of wildlife and the team were fortunate enough to go visit and see for themselves the unique opportunity to transform this landscape into an environmental hotspot.

Aimed at species recovery, the project will help a range of different species to recover, with the target species being the water vole. Through the creation of a safer habitat mosaic, insects, birds, mammals and freshwater species will all benefit from the plans. We’ve already spotted hares, egrets and some brightly coloured caterpillars and can’t wait to see what else nature has got in store for us.

So where do we fit in? Accelar, working alongside Ric Eales and Mark Warnett, have been supporting the Albanwise Environment team to seek out opportunities through the creation of ecosystem services. There are four broad categories of ecosystem services, defined by Defra, that the team will look to develop for the project.

• Provisioning Services – products obtained from ecosystem services, such as food, fuel and textiles.
• Regulating Services – benefits obtained from the regulation of ecosystem services, such as improvement to air quality, climate regulation, erosion prevention and more.
• Cultural Services – non-material benefits that people obtain through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, recreation such as aesthetic values, nature-based tourism and inspiration.
• Supporting Services – necessary to produce all other ecosystem services, including soil formation, nutrient cycling and the provision of habitat.

We are exploring all opportunities, under the principle that these ecosystem services do not compromise the natural environment but enhance and restore it. The key message is finding opportunities by allowing nature to do what it wants to do. That means not changing the landscape to fit with our plans, more moulding our plans around what is right for the landscape.

GFI HIve: Investment Readiness Toolkit Steps 1-8

To shape the business modelling, the team have been delving deep into the data to identify feasible options to make the site financially viable. We have used our existing tools to help quantify ecosystem services, identifying tradeable units and their associated standards and market mechanisms. We are working through steps 1-4 of the GFI Hive’s toolkit, to help inform the options for later stages of the snake. High integrity is a core component to our approach, taking in consideration some of the facets of the recently released nature market principles.

We’re looking forward to our continued work in developing the project, helping to secure private finance to make the project a sustainable success and to see the abundance of wildlife created through the creation of new habitat.

If you have any questions or are interested in learning more about the project, please reach out.