Oxygen Conservation has taken a significant step forward in its commitment to scaling conservation across the UK to deliver positive environmental and social impact.
With the backing of a £20.55m loan facility from Triodos Bank UK, the organisation has acquired 23,000 acres in Scotland – consisting of 11,390 acres of Langholm Moor, known as Blackburn and Hartsgarth, and an 11,610-acre estate at Invergeldie, near Comrie in Perthshire.
Rich Stockdale, managing director of Oxygen Conservation, said: “It’s only by creating these types of funding packages and frameworks with respected financial institutions that people can have the confidence to allow private finance to flow into natural capital at scale - thereby funding the protection of the natural world.”
Founded in June 2021 with the specific aim of tackling climate change and the biodiversity crisis, Oxygen Conservation works to protect and improve natural assets, generating a positive economic return as a result of its work, not as its purpose.
It seeks to achieve this through the delivery of a diverse range of projects, including species reintroduction, landscape connectivity, regenerative agriculture, woodland creation, renewable energy generation, sustainable housing, eco-tourism and carbon sequestration through woodland and peatland restoration.
Bevis Watts, chief executive of Triodos Bank UK, added: “Urgent restoration of the natural environment is essential to both tackling and being resilient to climate change, and the scale of investment needed is significant.
“We have worked for over five years to find models for investing in nature restoration that deliver the greatest public good.
“This loan, which adds to our pioneering portfolio of nature-based investment projects, is fully committed for 25 years, and is understood to be the largest debt transaction on nature-based finance in the UK.”
Invergeldie, currently home to a former grouse moor and small hill farming operation, Oxygen Conservation will be working with the on-site team, local businesses and the community over the coming 18 months to create a conservation-focused masterplan for the site.
During its custodianship, Oxygen Conservation intends to restore significant areas of peatland and plant large areas of native broadleaf woodland, while transitioning the farm to an organic, regenerative system.
Oxygen Conservation stated that Blackburn & Hartsgarth presents the opportunity to create "one of the most significant conversation projects in the UK", by building upon the excellent environmental work already delivered by the previous owner, Buccleuch, and complementing the neighbouring 10,500 acres of the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve.
These sites are the latest additions to Oxygen Conservation’s growing portfolio of owned and managed conservation sites, including the Leighon Estate in Dartmoor, Wood Advent Farm in Exmoor, Esgair Arth near Aberaeron in Wales, Swineley in the Yorkshire Dales, and a stretch of the Firth of Tay near Dundee.
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