The evidence contained in the report on the Knepp Wildland Carbon Project could help pave the way for investors and private-sector agents to invest in a greater diversity and scale of habitat restoration projects.

A diverse range of process-led nature restoration projects that deliver carbon sequestration, biodiversity restoration, natural flood management, and nutrient mitigation could help expand the voluntary carbon market, argues the report, led by the Knepp Estate and spearheaded by Arup and natural capital consultancy Nattergal. Other project partners include Agricarbon, Treeconomy and Queen Mary University London.

The UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, along with the Environment Agency, selected the project to receive funding through the second round of the Natural Environment Readiness Fund (NEIRF).

Using the Knepp Estate as a live example for measurement and assessment, to establish an industry baseline for nature restoration data, the report is believed to be the first published literature of its kind and one of the earliest global contributors to quantifying the effectiveness of rewilding as a means for mitigating climate change.

“It’s critical we find ways to scale private investment in solutions that reduce carbon, reverse nature loss and strengthen resilience to climate change,” said Tom Butterworth, nature director at Arup. “This research takes us another step closer to realising a carbon price that could more fully reflect the carbon sequestration that occurs in our wild places, as well as providing biodiversity benefits and additional ecosystem services.”

The findings indicate that rewilding of scrub and grassland sequesters and stores large volumes of atmospheric CO₂ over at least their first 20 years, with most carbon sequestration initially below ground in the soil. The report demonstrates that rewilding is an alternative investable climate solution, with estimated carbon sequestration rates of similar magnitude to those estimated for a newly planted native woodland, as calculated under the current version of the Woodland Carbon Code. This, argue the report’s authors, further underlines the need to update the way that carbon sequestration is assessed for all habitats, since current measures have identified limitations. Rewilding is also seen as having potential to deliver huge additional biodiversity benefits, including supporting the return of priority UK species such as birds and butterflies.

Ivan de Klee, project initiator at Nattergal, commented: “The fact that carbon sequestration rates in rewilding projects are as fast as woodland planting over the first 20 years is a world-changing piece of research. With only 26 years until 2050, climate solutions that are truly focused on biodiversity are absolutely critical to meeting global climate and biodiversity commitments. This report will finally enable focused investment into rewilding and biodiversity through the voluntary carbon markets.”

The report fills gaps in the data on the wider climate benefits of the dynamic habitat mosaics and soil health recovery that emerge through process-led, or rewilding nature restoration. The new data could potentially enable rewilding projects to bundle carbon and biodiversity credits, achieving a higher price in ecosystem markets, such as the voluntary carbon market, and help attract investment for habitat restoration projects.

The Knepp Wildland Carbon Project has also shown that carbon market prices need to better reflect the true value of nature recovery and to rise substantially before natural capital revenues can meaningfully incentivise process-led nature restoration more widely.