A national park in Sussex has become the first in the country to allow businesses to invest in its land to boost biodiversity. The South Downs National Park, which stretches from Eastbourne, skirts the edge of Brighton , and goes all the way to Winchester, has earmarked 500 hectares – the equivalent of 800 football pitches – of land on farms and country estates to be transformed through green finance investment. The voluntary biodiversity credits scheme will include monitoring of the investments to avoid any double counting or greenwashing.
Tim Slaney, interim chief executive at the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA), said: “This is a first for UK national parks and underlines our commitment to tackling the biodiversity crisis through innovation. “We have a real opportunity in the UK to turn the tide on nature depletion, as well as tackle the climate crisis through nature-based solutions, but we’ve got to act quickly and decisively. “With national parks covering almost 10 per cent of England’s land mass, places like the South Downs National Park can, and should be, the driving force behind nature recovery.
“In the UK, 41 per cent of species have declined in abundance over the past 40 years, so we’re at a pivotal moment. “There is now a real appetite across the corporate sector to demonstrate first-class environmental integrity, meet national targets and invest in the planet for future generations and that’s exactly what voluntary biodiversity cr.