---
title: "launch your region's nature market on ensurance"
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/launch-your-regions-nature-market-on-ensurance
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/launch-your-regions-nature-market-on-ensurance.md
subtitle: "what we set up, what it costs, what it funds, and what it is not"
category: how-to
---

# launch your region's nature market on ensurance

*what we set up, what it costs, what it funds, and what it is not*

This post is the offer. It is for a combined authority, a council, a county or a regional partnership that already has a nature recovery strategy, a list of places that need work, and not yet a steady line of buyers. It says what we would set up for you, what it costs on our public rate card, what it funds, how a business pays, and what it is not.

Begin with the ground. The heath on the edge of the city, the ponds in the country parks, the river reach that floods the same street every few winters, the street trees and the upland peat already do work for your region: they hold water, cool streets, store carbon and keep species in place. They do it whether or not anyone runs a market. A nature market is how the businesses that depend on that work find it and pay for it. Ensurance is plumbing a region can use instead of building its own. None of it is the worth of the heath.

:::johnson
**one region, one group, one account per project, yours to run.** We set up the pipes and the first lines. Your region keeps the pipeline, the partners and the buyers.

[talk to us about your region →](/contact?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market)
:::

## who this is for

The buyer is the body that owns the strategy. In England, 48 Local Nature Recovery Strategy areas now 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. Outside England, this post is for the body that holds the regional nature plan and its pipeline.

Two other readers sit on either side of the offer. The **project** (a wildlife trust, a farmer, a landowner, a community group) lists work and receives the money. The **business** (a local employer, a utility, a developer, a bank, a university) pays for work it can name and see. Where a part of the offer is for one of them, this post says so.

## the exposure: a pipeline with no steady buyer

A strategy names the places. A pipeline turns them into projects with a cost. What a pipeline needs next is businesses that can find the work and pay for it, year after year.

The scale is public. The West Midlands Combined Authority estimates its regional nature recovery strategy needs about £150m, public and private, and its Nature Investment Hub, launched in July 2026, opened with an initial pipeline of about £2m: tree planting, river and pond work, heathland and species projects. That is a serious start, and the hub is not a client of ours. The two numbers show the scale of the task: a strategy that needs about £150m, and a first pipeline of about £2m.

A region that wants a market has two costs. One is the pipeline, which is local work no one else can do. The other is the pipes: accounts, an instrument, payments, splits and a public record. [The post before this one](/guide/you-do-not-have-to-build-the-marketplace?from=guide) walks the build-or-borrow choice. This post prices the borrow route.

## a nature market for local authorities, on ensurance

Two services carry the offer. Both are on [our services page](/services?from=guide#finance) with public ranges, in US dollars. Each moves inside its range by what the card names, which for both is the size of the town or region. The exact number is set when we scope it with you.

| service | what you get | range on the card | moves with |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Ensurance deployment** | We do it for you: the valuation of the places on your pipeline, the certificate lines minted, the payors mapped and asked, the MRV clause written (how the work will be monitored, reported and verified), and the steward named on each split | $15,000–$50,000 | The size of the town or region |
| **The program** | 12–24 months of running it: certificates issued, monitoring and verification run, payors convened, quarterly reports. Premium flow from the certificates is on top | $1,000–$4,000 a month | The size of the town or region |

The deployment includes its own valuation of the places on your pipeline. If you want the whole region mapped first, the same page lists a **regional natural asset analysis** at $10,000–$15,000, by the size of the town or region: every natural asset the region depends on, valued together, with who depends on each. The [city valuation series](/guide/how-a-city-values-the-nature-it-already-owns?from=guide) explains that step, and [how to hire one](/guide/hire-a-natural-asset-valuation-for-your-city?from=guide) prices it.

What the deployment sets up, on the pipes that are live today:

- **A group in your region's name.** A namespace, like the live `.mumbai`, `.boulder` and `.tokyo` groups, with a page that lists every account in it.
- **An agent per project.** An account that holds value in the project's own name, separate from the next project and from the council.
- **A certificate line per project.** The thing a business buys. It records that a named buyer funded named work at a named place.
- **Proceeds on a split.** Each purchase routes to the project's account, with the steward named on the split. How a business pays today, and whether a council can pay by invoice, is scoped at contact.
- **A public record.** Every account, certificate and payment is on a public ledger, so anyone can check who funded what.

**A front end in your region's name** (a site on your own domain and brand, reading the same records) is scoped at contact. It is not on the public card, and we have not delivered one for any region yet. Until then, your group's page on ensurance.app is the front end: [the Mumbai group](/groups/mumbai?from=guide) shows what one looks like with 22 accounts.

## the living work it funds

The money goes to the places on your strategy, through the projects that do the work: heathland restored and grazed, ponds dug and kept clear, a river reach given room to flood, street trees planted and watered through their first summers, peat rewetted. The order matters. The place and the work come first. The people who keep it are paid out of what the place is funded to do, through the steward named on the split.

Nothing here chooses the projects for you. Your strategy and your screening do that. The deployment gives each chosen project an account and a line a business can buy.

## the unit

| reader | unit | what it means in their books |
|---|---|---|
| The region | One deployment per region | One scoped engagement, at a number inside the public range |
| The project | One account per listed project | Money arrives in the project's name, not pooled with the council's |
| The business | One certificate line per project | A purchase against a named project at a named place: a line it can report |

A business does not get a disclosure outcome from us. "A line it can report" means a dated record of what it funded, where. How that line is treated under TNFD, CSRD, SBTN or any other framework is for that framework's rules and the business's advisers.

## what you get in the first ninety days

We plan to work in this order; the timing is set at scoping.

1. **Scope.** The region, the first projects, the services and the price inside the range.
2. **The group.** Your namespace, applied for and reviewed, with its page live.
3. **The first accounts.** An agent for each project ready to list.
4. **The first lines.** A certificate line per project, suggested and created after review.
5. **The payor map.** The businesses in your region that depend on each place, and the first asks made.

If you then take the program, the monthly work starts: certificates issued, monitoring and verification run, payors convened, a report each quarter.

From the first day, your region's market is not on its own. Its accounts, coins and certificates sit in the same protocol as every other group, place and cause on ensurance: an account anywhere can hold them, its coins pair with `$ENSURE` and trade through the same router, and cross-city groups such as [urban nature](/urban-nature.syndicate?from=guide) already gather a theme across places. The links are live; the depth between markets is still early. No region has to go alone.

## what it is not

A certificate is not a carbon credit, a biodiversity net gain unit, an offset or an investment product. A developer cannot use it to meet a statutory BNG duty, which has its own rules and its own register ([demand by statute](/guide/demand-by-statute?from=guide) covers that market). Ensurance does not issue Woodland Carbon Code or Peatland Code credits or any regulated unit. Projects do not list themselves without review. A fiat checkout for a council or business buyer is not live; how a buyer pays is scoped at contact.

Ensurance is a public ledger and a service; nothing here is investment, tax, legal or accounting advice, and the council stays the accountable body for its own procurement and its own claims.

## where we are

As of 4 November 2026 there are 25 groups on ensurance, including the three city groups above and 9 natural assets with a RealValue valuation. We have not yet set up a nature market for any combined authority, council or region. If you are first, you shape how the next region's market is set up. Who owns what we produce is agreed at scoping.

## frequently asked questions

### what does a nature market for local authorities cost on ensurance?

On the public rate card, an ensurance deployment is $15,000–$50,000 and the program is $1,000–$4,000 a month for 12–24 months, each by the size of the town or region. A front end in your own name is scoped separately at contact.

### can a business use the certificate for biodiversity net gain or offsetting?

No. It is a record that the business funded named work at a named place. It is not a BNG unit, a carbon credit or an offset, and it cannot meet a statutory duty.

### do we have to replace the platform we already have?

No. A group can sit beside an existing market operator or registry. Agree one record per project so the same work is not counted twice.

### who owns the group?

Your region runs it. Who holds the owner key is set during the group application; say if you need it in your own wallet.

## next steps

Pick the first projects on your pipeline, then [tell us the region and those projects](/contact?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market). To see the ranges first, open [our services page](/services?from=guide#finance). Councils and combined authorities can start from [the governments page](/solutions/governments?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market), partnerships from [the regional collaboratives page](/solutions/regional-collaboratives?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market), and businesses that want to fund a region's work from [the corporations page](/solutions/corporations?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market).

## sources

- [Our services page](/services?from=guide#finance): the deployment, program and regional analysis rows with public ranges
- [Local nature recovery strategies, GOV.UK](https://gov.uk/government/publications/local-nature-recovery-strategies): 48 areas, responsible authorities under the Environment Act 2021
- [West Midlands Nature Investment Hub, WMCA](https://wmca.org.uk/what-we-do/environment-energy/natural-environment/west-midlands-nature-investment-hub/) and [WMCA on the £150m plan](https://wmca.org.uk/news/mayor-calls-on-businesses-to-back-150million-nature-recovery-plan/): launch, initial pipeline and the strategy estimate
- [Defra, Rooted in place](https://defraenvironment.blog.gov.uk/2026/07/02/rooted-in-place-how-the-west-midlands-nature-investment-hub-is-connecting-investment-with-nature/): the hub's launch on 2 July 2026
- [Understanding biodiversity net gain, GOV.UK](https://gov.uk/guidance/understanding-biodiversity-net-gain): the statutory BNG regime
- [The Mumbai group](/groups/mumbai?from=guide): a live group page and its accounts

## the series

1. [how to launch a nature market for your city or region](/guide/how-to-launch-a-nature-market-for-your-city?from=guide)
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** (you are here)
7. [already run a nature market? add ensurance beside it](/guide/already-run-a-nature-market-add-ensurance-beside-it?from=guide)