Natural Capital Markets—What farmers and policymakers need to know

Report by Fergus Lyon and Amy Burnett
Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, April 2023

Summary

The recent report—Natural Capital: what farmers and policy makers need to know—seeks to understand how new and emerging markets in natural capital fit into a changing landscape for farmers. 

Written by CUSP researchers Fergus Lyon and Amy Burnett at Middlesex University, the research was commissioned by the UK Food Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC) and supported by the Prince’s Countryside Fund. 

Earlier in April 2023, the UK Government published the Nature Markets Framework. The report comes to the conclusion that the government’s framework “does not sufficiently recognise the underlying structural imbalance between powerful and experienced international markets players and individual farmers.” But, as FFCC’s Chief Executive, Sue Pritchard, said “clear commitments and regulation could establish a global role for British governments’ leadership and ensure all UK farmers have fair access to these emerging markets.”

An accompanying briefing paper from FFCC further explores what role governments should play in shaping and enabling these markets to achieve substantial and speedy action towards climate goals and nature recovery—and shows that the UK government is missing an opportunity for global leadership by failing to make natural markets appealing to farmers. 

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