New project to ensure communities benefit from natural capital investment
A new initiative is launching to ensure more people can benefit from the investments being made in natural capital across Scotland.
The project, which is led by Community Land Scotland in partnership with the Scottish Land Commission, will help deliver Government expectations that communities are involved in decisions about - and benefit from - Scotland’s land, and will broker partnerships between local communities, landowners, and nature finance developers.
The groundbreaking project is funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Foundation Scotland, Scottish Forestry, and South of Scotland Enterprise.
Many landowners and developers are investing in natural capital opportunities and recognise the need for good local relationships and ensuring local people benefit from their projects. With investment in land for natural capital developments growing rapidly, there is a need to ensure that communities are meaningfully engaged, that they receive an equitable share of the benefits, and that the risk of them being sidelined is minimised.
The Natural Capital Partnerships Project aims to establish fair and practical examples of projects where communities, developers, and landowners work together to share in the benefits of natural capital investment.
The new team will work closely with stakeholders including community representatives, development agencies, National Park Authorities, the Scottish government, landowner representatives, the finance sector, and project developers, to create inclusive partnership models that deliver shared benefits. The project will demonstrate how natural capital investment can serve to improve outcomes for nature and climate while, at the same time, strengthening community resilience. These examples will be shared widely to guide future projects across Scotland and encourage community-focused investment approaches.
The Natural Capital Partnerships Project is recruiting two new team members to lead this work, with two additional hires planned for Spring. Team members will be based across the Scottish mainland and islands, working hands-on with landowners, investors and communities to build partnerships and create inclusive project models.
Community Land Scotland - Scotland’s representative body for community landowners and a leading voice in the land reform and community development sector - emphasised the value of this partnership project.
Ailsa Raeburn, Chair of Community Land Scotland, said:
We have seen the natural capital market start to take off in Scotland and seen good and bad examples of this working. The best examples are where landowners and investors sit down with communities and talk about their plans, changes they want to make and how they can work together to help build stronger local communities. That can be through a variety of ways including community benefit funds, building local capacity, transfer of assets and developing local skills and facilities. Equally we have seen some examples where the local community has been ignored or sidelined.
Thanks to these amazing funders who have the foresight to understand how the emerging natural capital or green finance markets can be made to work for everyone, we now have a chance to invest in building much stronger and more productive relationships between local people and natural capital owners and developers.
We all understand the scale of what is needed now to address climate and biodiversity challenges. Getting public and private finance to invest in people and planet can contribute to a better shared future if handled carefully, with all sides having an equal voice and realistic expectations of what can be achieved. The role of nature in underpinning our economy is often underestimated.
Rural Affairs Secretary, Mairi Gougeon said:
The role of nature in underpinning our economy is often underestimated, hidden, or simply not recognised. Many of the benefits from ecosystem services, such as their role in supporting good health through improving air quality and mental wellbeing, can be overlooked as they are not considered to have a market value. Our recent research shows that businesses reliant on nature contribute more than £40 billion to the economy and support around 260,000 jobs. We must ensure that we protect and enhance our natural capital so that we support these businesses and the benefits they provide to our communities.
The project aligns with the Scottish Government’s Natural Capital Market Framework, which was published recently. The Framework emphasises the importance of community benefits as central to a fair and functional natural capital market. The Scottish Land Commission was instrumental in establishing this project.
Rachel Searle, Head of Communities at Foundation Scotland said:
Foundation Scotland is investing in this pioneering programme in order to help grow a shared understanding of how Scotland’s communities can better and more meaningfully be part of emerging natural capital markets. Given our long experience working with communities and renewable energy businesses in the field of community benefit funds, it is exciting to be a partner in this initiative that necessitates new processes for dialogue between landowners, investors and communities, and will help drive new standards and mechanisms to ensure enduring, meaningful community benefits are realised.
Read more about Community Land Scotland here