Pillar 2: Nature restoration

The world is facing a nature crisis: biodiversity loss is the planetary boundary most overshooting its ecological ceiling with a 69% decline in wildlife populations in the last 50 years.

The top five drivers of biodiversity loss are: unsustainable use of natural resources, land/freshwater/ocean use change, pollution, invasive species and climate change. In turn, nature loss also exacerbates climate change.

At COP15, over 100 countries agreed to 23 biodiversity targets, including protecting 30% of global land and 30% of global ocean by 2030 – targets which are included in, and built upon in UK Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan.

From farm to fork, the sector is both dependent on nature to grow food as well as being the biggest contributor to biodiversity loss.

Compensating for the impacts of nature loss already increases food production costs. Combined with the impacts of climate change, this creates wider financial risks, impacting markets, legislation and liabilities.

Therefore, investment in nature restoration projects is key to building resilient supply chains. Nature-based solutions, such as regenerative agriculture, can also help mitigate climate change contributing to reducing the sector’s Scope 3 emissions in line with its Net Zero commitments (Pillar 1).

However, there is £44bn minimum funding gap for nature restoration in the UK over the next ten years.

A step-level change in investment and cross sector collaboration is needed to bridge this gap, which will be a key focus for FDF going forward, alongside a supportive regulatory framework.