Project overview
Nature North is a collaboration between NGOs, government agencies and funders, which have come together to drive climate resilience and green growth through nature recovery, working to promote large-scale investment in nature across the north of England. Nature North is part of the Northern Place and Culture Partnership, led by The NP11, and is a key element of The NP11’s Net Zero and Place and Culture strategies.
Recognised even in its early stages by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) final report (2020) as meeting the need for “Northern leaders and organisations with a strategic interest in the health of nature in the North, [to] create a joint forum for discussion … and where appropriate, aligned decision making across the North”, Nature North is the first pan-regional collaboration of its kind. It is bringing together groups that do not traditionally work together, enabling collaborative and coordinated working to drive investment into large-scale nature recovery.
Key project stats
Our role
Binnies supported Nature North’s goal to strategically steer nature finance and green investment to where it is needed most: the right habitat, in the right place, for the right outcome. Specifically, we helped Nature North in progressing four of its ‘investable propositions’: Green Northern Connections (orientated around facilitating nature recovery alongside linear infrastructure providers – transport, energy and water primarily), Thriving Northern Coasts and Estuaries (in collaboration with estuary and coastal partnerships), Healthy Northern Rivers (targeting conversations with prospective investors) and Liveable Northern Towns & Cities (focused on urban green space). For the first three investable propositions listed above, we developed ‘vision documents’, co-crafted with diverse stakeholder groups, through interactive online workshops, 1-2-1 discussions and desk-top research. For Green Northern Connections and Thriving Northern Coasts and Estuaries, this involved describing the opportunity, spatial priorities to help optimise benefits of nature recovery, and the investment case for supporting nature recovery. For Healthy Northern Rivers our focus was more on understanding investor appetite to align with measures that will help support our northern rivers. Following numerous 1-2-1 conversations, and understanding the principal types and drivers for nature finance and green investment in the north of England; the research culminated in a pan-north presentation of the four most scale-able investment models for landscape-scale nature recovery in the north of England, which can support the delivery of restoration at pace.
Our work helped facilitate and cement relationships between Nature North, its partners and various stakeholders. An outcome of our work was the set up of dedicated coordinating groups for the delivery of each investable proposition. For Liveable Northern Towns & Cities we conducted a rapid evidence review of potential investment and funding mechanisms for enhancing urban greenspace, supported by 1-2-1 discussions with prospective investors. As a result, Nature North now has relationships with large prospective investors, helping to remove barriers to investment and providing solutions for those who want to support nature and people in the north of England.
- Bridging the gap between suppliers of, and investors in, nature recovery
- Need for fresh funding options
- Need to illustrate potential of opportunities
- Desire for investable propositions
- Review of investment mechanisms and markets
- Facilitating dialogue through participative workshops and 1-2-1 conversations
- Rapid evidence reviews
- Production of shared ‘vision’ documents
- Criteria to help optimize benefits of nature recovery