Nature markets and English farmer groups: ready to go or reluctant to engage?

Abstract

Farmers and other land-managers are increasingly expected to engage in ‘nature markets’, whereby private sector actors pay for new environment-related goals from land management, such as payments for carbon sequestration or biodiversity credits. The UK is pioneering nature markets, but one of the perceived challenges for scaling these markets is the need for collaboration by multiple land-managers. In this study we explore if and how pre-existing farmer groups in England can engage in nature markets, and what might better enable this. This is based on a survey of contacts for twenty-eight farmer groups, and semi-structured interviews with nine of these groups. We found farmer groups have strengths that may allow them to engage in nature markets, especially their capacity to ‘aggregate’ supply, share knowledge, and coordinate efforts. These strengths often depend on the capacities of facilitators. Groups vary in size and remit, affecting strengths such as the ability to offer investments tied to place-identity. However, not all facilitators and group members are enthusiastic about nature markets; and even where there is interest, more information or other support may be required. These findings are consistent with thinking on farmers' social capital and the importance of facilitators for farmer coordination. If farmer groups are to engage more with nature markets, support for groups and their facilitators is needed, tailored to differently-sized groups, and tracking the consequences for farmers and nature. Regardless of the popularity and priorities of market-based approaches, encouraging land-manager collaboration will likely be a worthwhile investment for joined-up landscape management.