How does the UK Government support biodiversity?

The global 30by30 target was agreed at COP15 in 2022. The target spurred the UK to protect at least 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030. The Progress Report 2023 shows the UK is not on track to meet the 2030 deadline, with only 3% of England effectively protected for nature and 18% of Scotland.

The Climate Change Act 2008 has implications for biodiversity. It set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050, compared to 1990 levels. For agriculture, which currently produces 11% of the UK’s emissions, this indicates a push towards more sustainable practices, including improving soil management, which will have a positive impact on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

In addition to the UK targets, the devolved governments have their own environmental strategies:

England

In 2018, the UK Government launched the 25-Year Environment Plan, setting out a strategy to improve the environment within a generation. This was reinforced by the Environment Act 2021, which introduced legally binding targets for air quality, biodiversity, water and waste reduction.

The Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP23), the delivery mechanism for the Environment Act, has undergone a rapid review, and a revised plan will be introduced in 2025, which the Secretary of State, Steve Reed, said may see “rationalisation” of many targets. Statistics from the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) soil management data show that only 21.4% of England’s soils are currently under sustainable management, against a target of 40%.

Additionally, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill was introduced to Parliament in March 2025 in an attempt to streamline the planning process while balancing environmental obligations. The Bill seeks to develop a Nature Restoration Fund for England, which would allow developers to pay into this fund without undertaking site-specific ecological assessments in some instances. The fund will be managed and delivered by Natural England, who would also be tasked with preparing Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs), which will be geographically specific and tailored to the unique ecology of a given area.

Defra has provided a budget of £14m to 48 authorities across England, who, assisted by Natural England, must each prepare their own Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS), which is a legally binding commitment that agrees priorities for nature recovery and proposes location-specific actions. March 2025 marked the deadline for the 48 strategies to be in place, yet only two local authorities have adopted their LNRS (West of England and North Northamptonshire).

Scotland

The Scottish Government introduced its Environment Strategy in 2020, which outlined the long-term vision for Scotland’s natural environment. The 2024 progress report highlighted the need for increased coordination of actions across government to tackle the nature crisis. The Natural Environment Bill Scotland was introduced in February 2025, influenced by the strategy, to mandate targets to urgently address biodiversity and nature restoration.

NPF4 is a long-term plan that sets out the Scottish Government’s spatial principles, regional priorities, national developments and national planning policy. Actively supporting biodiversity in Scotland through policy-driven conservation efforts and nature-based solutions, NPF4 has provided strong policy support for sectors tackling climate change and biodiversity crises.

The biodiversity element of NPF4 includes Nature Networks Frameworks (NNF), which promote the creation of nature networks to restore degraded habitats and enhance ecological connectivity to ensure positive effects for biodiversity from development. Well-designed nature networks, based on well-functioning ecosystems, store and capture carbon, provide flood mitigation, help pollinators, improve soil health, clean air and water and mitigate high temperatures.

Wales

In Wales, the Natural Resource Policy aims for sustainable management of natural resources and ecosystem resilience.

The Welsh planning system has evolved to ensure biodiversity is protected and enhanced. Planning Policy Wales was fully revised in 2018, and further to consultation, the Welsh Government launched a paper in 2023 called Achieving a Net Benefit for Biodiversity.

The evolution of policy since 2018 has highlighted the UK’s commitment to nature recovery. As the economy faces potential headwinds, future policy decisions will dictate if the UK is the new home for green investment.

SAVILLS INSIGHT

Stacking public and private finance

"By taking action today through baselining and developing biodiversity strategies, we can work with the Government and private investment markets to halt the decline and build sustainable businesses and a thriving environment."

Robert Godfrey, Savills Head of Investment Strategy & Asset Management

Who funds biodiversity?

In order to meet the UK’s biodiversity targets, those who can effectively manage biodiversity need to be fairly rewarded for doing so. The direction of public funding for environmental protection has been curbed since the general election, making it even more crucial for private funding to limit biodiversity loss and close the funding gap.

Additionally, encouraging public-private partnerships can leverage the strengths of both parties; governments can provide funding and support, while private entities bring innovation and efficiency. Governments and the private sector are increasingly recognising the importance of nature and biodiversity, with initiatives such as the Taskforce for Nature-Related Financial Disclosure (TNFD) requiring companies to disclose and reduce their biodiversity impact.

Private financing

Private finance is required for activities that are not included in publicly funded schemes and to bridge the gap between the public funding levels and the Government’s environmental aspiration levels, ensuring that rapid nature recovery can be delivered at scale.

Biodiversity is increasingly recognised as a financially material commodity, yet it remains severely overlooked within mainstream investment strategies. The UK biodiversity market continues to face structural challenges due to a lack of scalable financial products and proven investment vehicles. However, a handful of forward-thinking UK businesses and financial institutions are helping to lay the foundation for a robust biodiversity market in the UK by:

1. Demonstrating scalable pilot projects that integrate ecological integrity, community inclusion and financial returns.
2. Testing blended finance models that combine private capital, public funding and voluntary credit mechanisms.
3. Collaborating with NGOs and scientific institutions to ensure rigorous methodologies and monitoring frameworks.

Triodos Bank UK has provided growth finance to Restore, a UK-based ecological restoration company, enabling it to expand its natural capital services, including the development of voluntary biodiversity credits.

Aviva is a core partner in a landmark project to restore the Celtic Rainforest, a carbon-financed initiative led by The Wildlife Trusts. The project aims to combine carbon sequestration with biodiversity restoration.

Waitrose launched its £1 million ‘Farming for Nature’ initiative in 2024, designed to help its British farming suppliers adopt nature-positive practices that boost on-farm biodiversity. It committed a further £500,000 in 2025, aimed at helping farmers cut agricultural emissions as part of its commitment to support the biodiversity-carbon nexus within food supply chains.

Public funding

In England, there are a number of public funding avenues to explore for biodiversity:

Capital grants

Defra has recently frozen 76 of the capital grant options, leaving just five open, which cover woodland health, capital grant plans, management plans, protection and infrastructure grants and higher tier capital grants.

Research funding

Defra funds farmers and rural businesses to encourage innovation in two ways:

• The Farming Innovation Programme (FIP) to increase productivity, sustainability and resilience.
• ADOPT, launched in April 2025, to support farmer-led, on-farm trials or experiments.

Revenue grant funding

Accessed through the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme:

• Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) pays farmers to adopt sustainable land management practices. It’s currently closed to new applications, but due to reopen in 2026.
• Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) supports environmental protection and restoration, with new applications open in summer 2025.
• Landscape Recovery pays groups of farmers and land managers to do long-term, large-scale projects together. This is currently closed.

CASE STUDY: LANDSCAPE ENTERPRISE NETWORKS (LENS)

E J Barker & Sons owns a 545-ha profitable and sustainable family farming business in north Suffolk, which runs food production and environmental protection hand-in-hand.

The third-generation farm prides itself on the production of high-quality and high-yielding arable crops, while keeping environmental protection at the fore. This has been done by stacking the public and private funding streams in an 80:20 ratio.

Public funding has come from a Higher Tier Stewardship scheme, which will run until 2027 and sits alongside an SFI24 scheme. These schemes have funded the planting of new hedges and the coppicing, restoration and gapping up of existing hedges, as well as the restoration of old ponds. The farm has been able to purchase equipment, such as pond dipping kit and magnifying glasses, to allow educational visits. Nest boxes, hedgehog boxes and dormouse boxes have also been funded through the scheme.

Private funding has come from two sources. Firstly, pond restoration to support the Great Crested Newt population has been funded by the District Level Licensing project in conjunction with the Suffolk Wildlife Trust.

Secondly, funding was gained from the Landscape Enterprise Networks (LENs), which aims to create a collaborative value chain. For Lodge Farm, investment in the LENs comes from Nestlé, Purina and PepsiCo, who have come together to incentivise the sustainable production of their products, including investment in equipment to improve habitat creation.

_{Read the articles within Spotlight: Biodiversity below.}