---
title: how to launch a nature market for your city or region
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/how-to-launch-a-nature-market-for-your-city
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/how-to-launch-a-nature-market-for-your-city.md
subtitle: "what a regional nature marketplace is, who has built one, and the one part only your region can do"
category: how-to
---

# how to launch a nature market for your city or region

*what a regional nature marketplace is, who has built one, and the one part only your region can do*

A **nature marketplace** for a city or region is where local businesses meet local nature work: a pipeline of named projects, a way to pay for them, and a public record of who paid for what. To launch one, a region needs three things: places that need work, buyers who trust the list, and a set of pipes. Only the first two have to be local.

Start with the ground, not the website. The peat on the uplands, the heath at the edge of the estate, the river reach that floods the same road most winters, the village ponds and the street trees on the hottest blocks already work for a city region. They hold water back, store carbon, cool streets and keep species in place, whether or not any marketplace lists them. A market is only how the businesses that lean on that work find it and pay toward its care. Ensurance is plumbing a region can use instead of laying its own. Neither the market nor the plumbing is the worth of the heath.

This post is for the council or combined-authority nature lead, the regional partnership coordinator, and the business sustainability lead across the table.

:::johnson
**the pipeline of places is your work. the pipes already exist.** Every regional market needs the same accounts, instruments, payments and record. Only the list of places, and the buyers' trust in it, has to come from your region.

[see a city group that is live today →](/groups/mumbai?from=guide)
:::

## what a nature marketplace is

A city region usually already has a plan for its nature. In England, 48 Local Nature Recovery Strategy areas cover the whole country, each led by a responsible authority appointed under the Environment Act 2021: a council, a mayoral combined authority or a national park authority. Each strategy says where the work is needed. What a strategy does not carry by itself is a way for local businesses to fund the work.

A nature marketplace sits between the strategy and that buyer. Three readers use it, and they want different things:

| reader | who that is | what they want from the market |
|---|---|---|
| The region | A combined authority, council, county or regional partnership | Money reaching the places in its strategy every year, not once |
| The business | A local employer, utility, developer, bank or university | Work it can name, visit and report, near where its staff and customers live |
| The project | A wildlife trust, farmer, landowner or community group | A way to list its work and be paid without building a payments office |

## who has launched one

Several regions went first, and they deserve the credit for it. None of them is a client of ours.

- **The West Midlands.** The West Midlands Combined Authority launched its Nature Investment Hub on 2 July 2026 at Lake View Park in Coventry, with Mayor Richard Parker and Nature Minister Mary Creagh. It matches businesses with local delivery partners and opened with an initial pipeline of about £2m: tree planting, river and pond work, heathland and species projects. WMCA estimates its regional nature recovery strategy needs about £150m, public and private.
- **The North East.** Mayor Kim McGuinness launched the North East Carbon and Nature Marketplace on 4 June 2025 with Net Zero North East England, billed as the UK's first combined-authority-led carbon and nature marketplace. It opened with 10,000 carbon credits and more than £11m of investible projects, including peatland in County Durham and Northumberland and a sediment project on the South Tyne.
- **Cornwall.** Local business press reported in March 2025 that Cornwall Council would run a nature market with EnTrade as market operator and Arup on digital and market design, where businesses buy environmental services from projects.
- **Devon.** The North Devon Biosphere says its Natural Capital Marketplace, run by a not-for-profit tied to the UNESCO biosphere, launched in April 2022 with Devon County Council buying about 2,500 tonnes of carbon credits.
- **La Rochelle.** The Coopérative Carbone de La Rochelle was founded in December 2020 by nine members, including the city and Alstom. It links local emitters with local projects that store carbon and carry a biodiversity benefit. Its first project, Forêt Bleue, planted 7,500 trees on 1.7 hectares.

GOV.UK reports that Cornwall, the North East and the West Midlands are among the pilot areas of LINC (Local Investment in Natural Capital), an Environment Agency programme funded by Defra. Each of these regions set up a platform of its own.

## the seven parts every nature market has

Strip away the branding and each of these markets has the same parts. [What is inside a nature marketplace](/guide/what-is-inside-a-nature-marketplace?from=guide) takes them one at a time.

1. **Pipeline.** The places and projects, screened against the nature recovery strategy.
2. **Listing.** A page a business can open that says what each project is, where it is, and what it costs.
3. **An account per project.** Money held in the project's name, separate from the next project's.
4. **The instrument.** The thing a business buys: a carbon credit, a unit, or a record of funding.
5. **Payment and split.** A way to pay, and a rule for where the money goes.
6. **The record.** A public list of who paid for what, so nothing is counted twice.
7. **Evidence and reporting.** Proof that the work happened, and a line the business can report.

## the one part only your region can do

Six of those parts are pipes. The first is not. The pipeline of places is local knowledge: which ponds the wildlife trust can restore this winter, which farmer will rewet the peat, which street trees die in their second summer for want of water. It is also local trust. A firm is more likely to fund a project down the road when it trusts the people who chose it.

No vendor and no protocol can do that part for you. A region that spends its first year on pipes has less time for the part only it can do.

## how to launch a nature market, step by step

1. **Start from your strategy.** Pick five or so places where the work is ready and the cost is known. If you have not yet valued what they do, [how a city values the nature it already owns](/guide/how-a-city-values-the-nature-it-already-owns?from=guide) is the step before this one.
2. **Name the buyer for each place.** The water company downstream of the peat, the employer beside the river, the university that walks its students across the heath. A buyer funds a place it depends on or can see. [Name the line for the buyer, not the town](/guide/name-the-line-for-the-buyer-not-the-town?from=guide) shows how.
3. **Decide what a business gets.** A carbon credit fits only work that stores carbon; a heath or a pond has no tonne. A record that a named business funded named work at a named place fits every project.
4. **Choose the pipes.** Build them or borrow them; the next section is the choice.
5. **Publish the record and report on it every year.** A business comes back when it can see what last year's money did.

## build or borrow

**Build.** Tender for a market operator, a digital designer, a registry or a platform. The regions that went first set up platforms of their own, with good partners, and a region with a vendor can keep it. The cost is that every region pays for the same pipes again. [You do not have to build the marketplace](/guide/you-do-not-have-to-build-the-marketplace?from=guide) walks that choice in full.

**Borrow.** Point pipes that already exist at your place. On **ensurance**, a region opens a **group**: a named home for its market, like the live `.mumbai`, `.boulder` and `.tokyo` groups. Each project gets an **agent**, an account that holds value in the project's own name. Each project can carry a **certificate** line, which records that a named buyer funded named work at a named place. Proceeds route to the project on a split the region sets, and the record is public. [Run a group for what you already care about](/guide/run-a-group-for-what-you-already-care-about?from=guide) has the two doors to a group and the clicks.

A region that borrows also does not stand alone: its group sits in the same protocol as every other group, any coin it issues (a token tied to a place or theme) trades through the same route as every other ensurance coin, and its projects appear on the same [markets page](/markets?from=guide) a buyer in any city can open. A market built alone is an island; one built here starts linked to the others. The links are live; the depth between markets is still early, and no buyer from another region is promised.

Said exactly, here is what is live and what is not. Live today: groups, agents, coins, certificates (you suggest one and it is created after review), proceeds on a split, and a group page on ensurance.app that lists every account in the group. Not live: a front end in your region's own brand or domain (built to order and scoped at contact), projects listing themselves without review, and a fiat checkout for a council or business buyer (how a buyer pays is scoped at contact). A certificate is not a carbon credit, a biodiversity net gain unit, an offset or an investment product.

## frequently asked questions

### what is a nature marketplace?

A meeting place where businesses and investors fund named nature projects in a region, with a pipeline of projects, a way to pay, and a public record of who paid for what.

### is a nature market the same as a local carbon market?

No. Carbon is one thing a wood or a peat bog does; a heath or a hedgerow does other work. [What a local carbon market is, and what it leaves out](/guide/what-a-local-carbon-market-leaves-out?from=guide) covers the difference, and [what a carbon market actually is](/guide/what-a-carbon-market-actually-is?from=guide) covers the wider market.

### can a developer use a nature market to meet biodiversity net gain?

Not with anything bought here. Biodiversity net gain has its own rules, gains secured for at least 30 years and statutory credits as the last resort, and ensurance does not issue BNG units. A certificate cannot meet a statutory BNG duty. [Demand by statute](/guide/demand-by-statute?from=guide) explains that separate market.

### do we have to drop the vendor we already have?

No. A region with a market operator or platform can keep it. A group can sit beside it, as long as each project has one record so nothing is counted twice.

### what does it cost?

Applying for a group costs nothing; the other door, with no review, is priced by the contract (10 ETH on 7 October 2026) and is reviewed by a person. If you want the market set up and run for you, the public ranges are on [our services page](/services?from=guide#finance), and [launch your region's nature market on ensurance](/guide/launch-your-regions-nature-market-on-ensurance?from=guide) lays out the offer.

## next step

Write down the first five places on your list and who depends on each. That list is the market. Councils and combined authorities can start from [the governments page](/solutions/governments?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market), regional partnerships from [the regional collaboratives page](/solutions/regional-collaboratives?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market), or [tell us your region and its first projects](/contact?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market).

## sources

- [WMCA, West Midlands Nature Investment Hub](https://www.wmca.org.uk/what-we-do/environment-energy/natural-environment/west-midlands-nature-investment-hub/): what the hub does and its initial pipeline
- [WMCA, Mayor calls on businesses to back £150million nature recovery plan](https://www.wmca.org.uk/news/mayor-calls-on-businesses-to-back-150million-nature-recovery-plan/): the £150m estimate
- [Defra, "Rooted in place," 2 July 2026](https://defraenvironment.blog.gov.uk/2026/07/02/rooted-in-place-how-the-west-midlands-nature-investment-hub-is-connecting-investment-with-nature/): the launch at Lake View Park, Coventry
- [North East Combined Authority, marketplace launch](https://northeast-ca.gov.uk/news/environment-coastal-and-rural/north-east-mayor-launches-uk-s-first-combined-authority-led-carbon-and-nature-marketplace): launch on 4 June 2025, credits and projects
- [Business Cornwall, March 2025](https://businesscornwall.co.uk/latest-news/2025/03/new-nature-market-to-support-cornwalls-environment/): Cornwall's nature market, EnTrade and Arup
- [North Devon Biosphere, Natural Capital Marketplace launch](https://northdevonbiosphere.org.uk/news/the-natural-capital-marketplace-launches-with-a-large-carbon-offset-order-from-devon-county-council): the 2022 launch and Devon County Council's order
- [Banque des Territoires, Coopérative Carbone de La Rochelle](https://www.banquedesterritoires.fr/transformation-ecologique-la-banque-des-territoires-investit-dans-la-cooperative-carbone-de-la) and [Climate Chance, carbon cooperative](https://climate-chance.org/en/best-pratices/carbon-cooperative): founding members and Forêt Bleue
- [GOV.UK, green finance boost for nature](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/green-finance-boost-for-nature-in-uk): the LINC pilot areas
- [GOV.UK, Local Nature Recovery Strategies](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-nature-recovery-strategies): the 48 areas and responsible authorities
- [GOV.UK, understanding biodiversity net gain](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understanding-biodiversity-net-gain) and [statutory biodiversity credits](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/statutory-biodiversity-credits): the 30-year minimum and the last-resort credits

## the series

1. **how to launch a nature market for your city or region** (you are here)
2. [what is inside a nature marketplace](/guide/what-is-inside-a-nature-marketplace?from=guide)
3. [what a local carbon market is, and what it leaves out](/guide/what-a-local-carbon-market-leaves-out?from=guide)
4. [why a business funds nature in its own region](/guide/why-a-business-funds-nature-in-its-own-region?from=guide)
5. [you do not have to build the marketplace](/guide/you-do-not-have-to-build-the-marketplace?from=guide)
6. [launch your region's nature market on ensurance](/guide/launch-your-regions-nature-market-on-ensurance?from=guide)
7. [already run a nature market? add ensurance beside it](/guide/already-run-a-nature-market-add-ensurance-beside-it?from=guide)