The Wildlife Trusts, RSPB, Woodland Trust and National Trust have today published a set of principles to combat greenwashing.
The nature markets principles, developed in collaboration with Finance Earth and Federated Hermes, cover carbon credits, biodiversity units and nutrient credits to ensure projects are led by science and maximise sustainability benefits.
The collaboration comes after concerns that poor quality or low ambition schemes could create a ‘wild west’ that allows certain industries or businesses to greenwash due to a lack of regulation.
The seven principles include ensuring the projects are led by science, are independently measurable and transparent.
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The Wildlife Trusts director of landscape recovery Dr Rob Stoneman said that nature credit offsets have a “real opportunity to restore nature and create regeneration and prosperity in the countryside but only “if done in the right way.”
“These principles send a firm message from some of the UK’s top deliverers of nature-based solutions that we will only engage with the highest integrity schemes,” he added.
“Buyers must stand up to scrutiny and truly contribute to nature’s recovery in the UK, while benefiting local communities.”
Woodland Trust director Alistair Maltby commented: “everyone involved in nature conservation is alive to the risk of greenwash.
“The nature market principles are an important step in tackling this. They ensure only projects which genuinely contribute to nature’s recovery are included, and only those businesses with a clear commitment to that objective can invest,” he continued.
“The principles set out the foundations for a high integrity market and we want them to be adopted as widely as possible, to help to deliver the funding that is urgently needed to assist nature’s recovery.”
