Landscape Enterprise Networks

Landscape Enterprise Networks (LENs)

LENs is a new and innovative approach that focuses on linking businesses and land managers and using the natural assets of a locality to generate complementary benefits for people, the environment, and for business.  An example of this is peatland restoration: this supports biodiversity and helps sequester carbon to combat climate change, but also benefits agriculture, since peatland acts as a giant sponge that regulates water flow, giving more consistent irrigation of agricultural land whilst reducing flash floods that can erode valuable soils. Restoring peatland allows farmers to reduce the carbon footprint of their operations while having more reliable conditions for rearing livestock or growing crops, which in its turn contributes towards a lower carbon, more stable supply chain for food and drink producers who are selling to us, the local consumers.

The LENs model can bring together multiple businesses who all benefit from the transaction in differing ways. Our Biosphere is working in partnership with 3Keel, SEPA and SRUC in piloting Scotland’s first LENs trade. This use of private finance to support wider social and environmental benefits is very new and likely to be adopted more widely in the future, in Scotland and across the UK.