Build on the experience of CivTech Challenge 8.6 with Credit Nature to explore development of new voluntary codes for nature restoration.
Objective 5: Invest in nature
Priority Action 25. Establish a values-led, high-integrity market for responsible private investment in natural capital.
Work is underway in Scotland to explore voluntary codes and standards for nature restoration, building on innovation activity such as CivTech Challenge 8.6 on biodiversity credits and related work with Credit Nature. These initiatives focus on how voluntary standards could help define, measure, and verify biodiversity outcomes in a way that can support responsible investment in nature.
Scottish Government policy materials confirm ongoing development of approaches to high-integrity nature finance and biodiversity markets, including ecosystem restoration standards and credit-based systems. This work sits alongside existing established voluntary carbon standards already operating in Scotland, including the Woodland Carbon Code and Peatland Code, which provide verified frameworks for issuing carbon units from woodland creation and peatland restoration projects.
LINK supports the development of nature finance tools only where they are underpinned by strong governance, transparency, and robust ecological standards, and they emphasise that any voluntary codes must ensure real and additional biodiversity benefits rather than weak or unverified claims. Such mechanisms must sit alongside, not replace, public investment in nature restoration.
Overall, activity is currently focused on testing concepts and developing standards, rather than implementing a formal national voluntary code for nature restoration.
Voluntary codes and standards for nature restoration are intended to improve the quality and credibility of restoration projects by ensuring that biodiversity gains are measurable, verified, and consistent. Evidence from UK and Scottish nature finance policy development shows that better standards can help increase confidence in investment and improve the ecological integrity of funded projects.
In principle, this could support better outcomes for habitats and ecosystems by directing investment toward projects that deliver genuine biodiversity improvement. However, these biodiversity-focused voluntary codes are still in development in Scotland. There is no established national system yet in operation, and ecological benefits remain potential rather than demonstrated at scale. NGO evidence also highlights that strong governance and alignment with public funding and regulation will be essential for real ecological impact.
Woodland Carbon Code – voluntary carbon standard for woodland creation
Peatland Code – voluntary carbon standard for peatland restoration
CivTech Scotland – innovation programme (including biodiversity credit challenge work)
Credit Nature – biodiversity credit development
Promote the natural capital market framework to foster responsible, values-led private investment in nature while delivering benefits to local communities. It will do this by providing guidance to investors, land managers, and other stakeholders, offering tools and resources to develop sustainable projects.
Publish a Biodiversity Investment Plan for Scotland by the end of 2024 that contains actions to: support a range of finance mechanisms; promote value for money; and develop biodiversity markets in Scotland.
Public funding streams that contribute to nature restoration will be designed in a way that they can be matched or blended with private finance or investment. - New ways of using available Peatland Action funding to leverage other sources of finance for peatland restoration will be tested from 2025/26. - New approaches to further increase the level of private investment in woodland…
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