Members of the Waters of LIFE project team attended a conference entitled – “Trialling a Natural Capital approach to fund and deliver environmental benefits”. This course was hosted by our colleagues in the Natural Course LIFE IP in the United Kingdom. The conference was held in Manchester on the 25th & 26th of April.

The conference was attended by delegates from many other LIFE Projects around Europe including projects from Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Lativa, Poland, Sweden and Wales.

The conference heard about the Natural Capital approach adopted by many projects supported by the Natural Course IP. This is a new way of identifying opportunities to fund nature conservation and flood management works. The conference also heard about the use of various mapping tools to identify priority areas for action. We also had a tour Mayfield Park to view the new public space created there.

Presentations included:

– The Ecological Network Tool – using spatial modelling to identify priority areas for biodiversity and Natural Capital across the North West River Basin District

– Understanding Ecosystem Services opportunities and Natural Capital accounts in Greater Manchester

– Flood and Coastal Risk Management opportunities in the Northwest

– BRILliant action plan: Bringing the River Irk to Life

– Using Natural Capital Farm plans as a catalyst for engagement with landowners

– An overview of the Mayfield Park development and Natural Capital benefits

– Resilient Glendermackin- A market led approach to tackling flood risk

– Using a Natural Capital approach to design and deliver an investable business model: Wyre Catchment Natural Flood Management

– The Greater Manchester Environment Fund and our approach to Biodiversity Net Gain

– IGNITION – Building the case for investment in urban nature-based solutions

The Presentations are available at the following link Natural Course Presentations and on the Natural Course website.

The conference was a great opportunity to meet colleagues from around Europe and exchange ideas and experiences from our own projects.

We thank Natural Course for the invite to the conference, and wish them well with the remainder of their project.