By John Watkins, CEO National Landscapes Association and Catherine Hawkins, CEO, National Parks Partnership 

For years, nature loss has been framed as a moral issue. Increasingly, it is becoming something else: a material business risk.

Flood, fire, supply chain fragility, workforce wellbeing, rising insurance premiums, regulatory pressure; these are no longer distant concerns. They sit squarely in boardrooms, on P&L statements, and within credit risk assessments.

And yet, despite growing awareness, many businesses are still struggling with a fundamental question: where do we invest in nature with confidence?

At the recent Delivering for Nature, Together Forum, convened by National Parks Partnerships and National Landscapes Association, we brought together investors, insurers, corporates, grant makers and project leaders to explore that question. What emerged was not a lack of appetite, but a desire for trusted, scalable pathways.

National Parks and National Landscapes cover a quarter of the nation's land. They are not just places of natural beauty, they are driving vital action for people, nature and climate. They are partnering with the private sector to increase the pace and scale of their work and provide credible routes for investment in nature recovery.

From ESG aspiration to business resilience strategy

One of the clearest messages from the Forum was that the language is shifting. “Business resilience” is replacing “corporate responsibility.”

Insurers and lenders are grappling with nature-related risk. Construction firms are confronting embedded carbon and ecological footprint challenges. Investors are looking for new ways to finance nature and climate action.  

This is not just about philanthropy. It is about risk management and staying ahead of the competition.

Protected landscapes offer something distinctive in this context:

• Trusted relationships with land managers and communities
• Long-term stewardship and governance
• Aggregated, landscape-scale projects
• Quantified outcomes that align with, and frequently go beyond, established codes and standards
• The ability to blend carbon, biodiversity, social value and local economic benefit

But unlocking that value requires structural change.

The credibility gap — and how to close it

Investors and businesses told us clearly what builds confidence: trusted partners, tested models, clear data, co-designed outcomes and long-term certainty.  

There remains frustration around fragmented information, inconsistent advice at local levels and policy volatility. One attendee described trying to invest in nature as “like trying to build a house without architects, surveyors or standards.” The structures are still maturing.

The solution is not to start from scratch. It is to adapt familiar investment structures — including models already used in renewables — to nature markets. It is to aggregate projects so that risk is spread and scale becomes investable. And it is to embed social value into environmental projects rather than treating it as an afterthought.

Protected landscapes can play an important part in enabling and developing the types of projects that offer business resilience and foster partnerships with the private sector that can help overcome mutual challenges and deliver exceptional results.  
 

From net zero uncertainty to high-integrity partnerships

Perhaps the most telling insight from the Forum was not about ambition, but confidence. Concern for nature among participants averaged more than 9 out of 10. Yet fewer than 20 per cent of organisations felt confident they could meet their net zero targets independently at the start of the day.

Businesses are under mounting pressure to decarbonise, but many are wary of fragmented carbon markets, reputational risk and questions around permanence and verification. The result is hesitation - not for lack of will, but for lack of trusted delivery routes.

Protected landscapes offer a different proposition.

National Parks and National Landscapes bring together long-term stewardship, robust governance and aggregated, landscape-scale carbon projects rooted in place. They can blend high-integrity nature-based carbon — from peatland and woodland restoration to emerging nature credit models and biodiversity net gain — with wider environmental infrastructure and social value.

This is not about offsetting in isolation. It is about working holistically at landscape scale: restoring habitats, strengthening water catchments, supporting local jobs and heritage, and building climate resilience alongside verified carbon outcomes.

By the end of the Forum, more than 80 per cent of participants said they were confident that collective action could deliver for nature. The shift was striking. When credible partners, transparent data and co-designed outcomes are on the table, confidence follows.

For businesses uncertain about how to meet net zero with integrity, partnership with protected landscapes offers a practical pathway: trusted projects, aggregated at scale, aligned with recognised standards, and embedded within the places that underpin our national resilience.

Nature needs to move onto the balance sheet

Another strong theme was the need to go beyond narrow carbon accounting.

Businesses increasingly recognise that natural capital assets underpin productivity, from flood prevention protecting infrastructure to workforce wellbeing linked to access to green space. Yet these benefits rarely appear clearly in financial reporting.

If climate risk can influence insurance premiums and credit ratings, then nature degradation should equally feature in board-level risk assessments.

What is emerging is a more sophisticated financial conversation. Businesses are exploring blended finance models, green bonds and taxonomy-aligned investment as mechanisms to channel capital into nature recovery at scale. There is also growing recognition that support for nature must shift from sporadic corporate giving to structured corporate contributions, aligned to long-term landscape outcomes and integrated into core business strategy.

At the same time, organisations are beginning to consider how social capital and natural capital can be reflected together in reporting frameworks, recognising that jobs, skills, health and resilience are inseparable from environmental recovery.

In short, the triple bottom line must become operational, not rhetorical.

From volunteering to co-design

Even corporate volunteering was reframed at the Forum. The value must be two-way, measurable and designed collaboratively rather than assumed. Co-design builds trust. And trust underpins credible partnerships.

If we want private finance to scale, relationships must be treated as infrastructure, not an optional extra.

What happens next?

The message from business is not “convince us why nature matters.” It is “show us how to invest with confidence.”

Protected landscapes are uniquely placed to respond. They bring scale, strong working relationships with land managers and a holistic strategic approach to nature recovery that aligns environmental recovery with jobs, skills, wellbeing and local economic resilience.

But this requires partnership.

The next phase of nature recovery in the UK will require structured collaboration between business, government and place-based delivery partners.

Nature is now a resilience strategy for business. The question is no longer whether to act, but how quickly we can mobilise. As we scale up our green finance work, protected landscapes can provide trusted mechanisms for private finance to flow into nature recovery at the speed and scale we all need.

We believe the UK’s protected landscapes can be central to that solution.