A pioneering pilot project is launching in the Pentland Hills to test a completely new way of funding nature restoration in Scotland – a model that could reshape how land managers, communities, and investors work together to restore ecosystems across entire landscapes.
Project L-and was established by a cluster of farmers in the Pentland Hills. Collectively they work to bring farmers, communities, and businesses together to protect and enhance local ecosystems and biodiversity.
Through NatureScot’s FIRNS programme, Project L-and will test the eagerly anticipated Ecosystem Restoration Code- a mechanism that aims to attract responsible private investment into nature restoration and biodiversity projects.
Filling the Nature Finance Gap
Project L-and has developed a nature enhancement plan which could deliver targeted interventions to enhance ecosystem resilience — including hedgerow expansion, conservation grazing, wetland creation, conservation grazing, blocking drains in shallow peat, montane scrub creation, scrub restoration — but, at present, there is no government-endorsed framework in Scotland for independently verifying and accrediting private finance invested in such ecosystem restoration activities.
The new code is not live yet and is undergoing and engagement and co-design phase with stakeholders. This project will test how it could work in the upland landscapes of the Pentlands, and in a farm cluster model with many farmers and land managers working together to deliver benefits for nature on a landscape scale.
The pilot project will also explore whether a nature credit system based on transparent scientific data can attract genuine buyer interest. The project will test whether buyers are willing to invest in this new form of nature finance. If it proves successful, it could simultaneously generate long-term sustainable income for farmers and land managers, while also restoring ecological environments across the working rural landscape.
If we are to restore biodiversity in Scotland, we will need to increase responsible investment in nature. Innovative funding models that stimulate nature recovery and strengthen community resilience to climate impacts can demonstrate ways to do that. That's why funding for this collaborative FIRNS project in the Pentland Hills is important especially as it has the potential to revive nature-rich woodland, peatland, wetland and soils as well as support the wellbeing of many people.NatureScot CEO, Nick Halfhide
This pilot supports the ambitions of Scotland’s Natural Capital Markets Framework and Biodiversity Strategy 2045, but crucially it is designed as a learning programme — testing the rules, tools and market appetite needed to build credible, investible nature markets for the future.
From baseline to uplift
The pilot will capture baseline data on habitats, birds, large mammals, and connectivity barriers (obstacles that impede the flow of species and natural processes across ecosystems). It will calculate condition scores for the landscape’s ecosystem and forecast the anticipated ecological improvements to create a model for the future supply of nature credits. A long-term monitoring framework will be designed to ensure robust measurement, reporting and verification.
Shaped with communities
Project L-and’s ethos of community engagement will be an important theme, running alongside the project’s technical delivery. Through digital platforms and local focus groups the enterprise will ensure that this new market model is shaped by those who live and work in the Pentlands, as well as those who may ultimately invest in its restoration.
A blueprint for Scotland’s future nature markets
By operating as a real-world testbed, the Pentland Hills pilot will generate practical evidence about what works, what doesn’t, and how Scotland can build high-integrity nature markets that genuinely restore ecosystems while supporting rural livelihoods.