---
title: what is inside a nature marketplace
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/what-is-inside-a-nature-marketplace
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/what-is-inside-a-nature-marketplace.md
subtitle: "seven parts every regional nature market has, who usually builds each one, and the one that has to be local"
category: nature-finance
---

# what is inside a nature marketplace

*seven parts every regional nature market has, who usually builds each one, and the one that has to be local*

A **nature market platform** is the machinery behind a regional nature market: a pipeline of projects, a page that lists them, an account for each, something a business can buy, a way to pay and split the money, a public record, and the evidence that the work happened. That is seven parts. Every city or regional market has all seven, whatever its vendor calls them, and only one of them is local.

The parts exist for the ground. The pond in the country park, the heath on the edge of the city, the reach of river that floods the same street, the street trees and the upland peat do their work for a region whether or not a platform lists them: they hold water, store carbon, cool streets and keep species in place. A platform is how the businesses that depend on that work find it and pay toward it. Ensurance carries part of six of the seven today, and the gaps are named below. None of it is the worth of the pond.

This post is the parts list, for the council or combined-authority officer writing a specification, the regional partnership weighing a vendor, and anyone asked to explain an **impact marketplace** to a board. For each part: what it does, who usually builds it, what ensurance carries today, and what stays with the region.

:::johnson
**every nature market has the same seven parts. only one of them is local.** The pipeline of places is yours. For the other six, you can build them again, or borrow what already exists and name what does not.

[see certificates on the public record →](/specific?from=guide)
:::

## the seven parts at a glance

| part | what it does | on ensurance today | the region still decides |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Pipeline | Finds and screens projects against the nature recovery strategy | Nothing. This part is yours | The strategy, the screening, the partners |
| 2. Listing | Shows a business what each project is, where, and what it costs | A group page that lists every account; a page per account | What each project says about itself |
| 3. An account per project | Holds money in the project's name | An agent (an account for a place or project) inside your group (your region's named market home) | Which projects get one |
| 4. The instrument | Gives a business something to buy | A certificate line per project; coins for a theme | Which projects are ready to sell |
| 5. Payment and split | Takes a payment and routes it | Proceeds to the project on a split you set | Who is named on the split |
| 6. The record | Shows who paid for what, once | Every account, certificate and payment on a public ledger | Pointing buyers at it |
| 7. Evidence and reporting | Shows the work happened | Natural assets, each with a RealValue read (an estimate of what the place does for people, per year); reporting as a service | What your strategy needs to see |

## 1. the pipeline

**What it does.** Turns a strategy into a list of projects with a place, a partner, a cost and a start date. The West Midlands Nature Investment Hub, launched in July 2026, opened with an initial pipeline of about £2m across tree planting, river and pond work, heathland and species projects. WMCA says projects on the hub must align with the regional nature recovery strategy.

**Who builds it.** The region, always: officers, the wildlife trusts, farmers, landowners and community groups who know the ground. Gaia describes Cornwall's Natural Capital Exchange as a panel-assessed portfolio. Defra says Projects for Nature projects are screened nationally by Defra, Natural England and the Environment Agency.

**On ensurance.** Nothing, and that is deliberate. A protocol cannot know which pond is ready this winter. This is the part that makes a market local.

## 2. the listing

**What it does.** Gives a business a page it can open and forward to a colleague. **Who builds it.** Usually a web vendor or a platform licence. Gaia says it built Cornwall's exchange on its Gaia Enterprise product; Projects for Nature runs on Spacehive under a Defra contract from July 2025.

**On ensurance.** Every group has a page on ensurance.app that lists its accounts, and every account has its own page. [The Mumbai group](/groups/mumbai?from=guide) lists 22 today. A site in your region's own brand or domain, reading the same records, is built to order and scoped at contact; none has been delivered for a region yet.

## 3. an account per project

**What it does.** Keeps one project's money apart from the next project's and from the council's own. **Who builds it.** A bank, a trust structure or the vendor's ledger, plus the reconciliation every year.

**On ensurance.** An **agent**: an account inside your group that holds value in the project's own name. It is not a legal entity; the project's own trust, company or farm stays the accountable party.

## 4. the instrument

**What it does.** Names what a business is buying. In the North East, buyers can buy carbon credits or fund projects. In England, developers buy biodiversity net gain units from habitat banks such as Environment Bank, which sells them.

**On ensurance.** A **certificate** line per project: a record that a named buyer funded named work at a named place. Today a region suggests a line and it is created after review. A certificate is not a carbon credit, not a biodiversity net gain unit, not an offset and not an investment product. A developer cannot use it to meet a statutory BNG duty, which since 2024 requires a 10% gain for major development, secured for at least 30 years. **Coins** (tokens tied to a place or theme) are the other instrument: their trading can fund a theme across many projects.

## 5. payment and split

**What it does.** Takes the money and sends it where it should go: the project, the steward, any fee. **Who builds it.** A payment provider, a finance team, and the controls a council's auditors will ask about.

**On ensurance.** Proceeds route to the project's account on a split the region sets, with the person or body caring for the place named on it. What is not live: a fiat checkout for a council or business buyer. How a buyer pays is scoped at contact.

## 6. the record

**What it does.** Shows who paid for what, once, so the same work is not sold or claimed twice. This is the part that protects every other part. Natural England's biodiversity gain site register does this job for BNG: it is a public record, not a marketplace.

**On ensurance.** Every account and certificate, and every payment routed through the protocol, sits on Base, a public ledger anyone can read. If a project is also listed with another vendor or register, pick one record for that project and say which. Two records for the same work is how double counting starts.

The protocol is also what links one region to the rest. A region's group sits beside every other group: an account in any group can hold another group's coins and certificates, and cross-city syndicates such as [`urban-nature.syndicate`](/urban-nature.syndicate?from=guide) already coordinate one theme across many places. No region's market starts alone. The links are live; the depth between markets is still early.

## 7. evidence and reporting

**What it does.** Shows the work happened and gives the buyer a line it can report. WMCA says its business offer includes recognition in an annual regional impact report. In the North East, Cundall says it prepared the marketplace's integrity framework and guide.

**On ensurance.** Nine [natural assets](/natural-assets?from=guide) carry a RealValue read today. Monitoring and quarterly reports are a service, not a button: the program on [our services page](/services?from=guide#finance) covers them. A business gets a line it can report; how a disclosure framework treats that line is for the framework's own rules.

## who uses which part

**The region** owns part 1 and decides the rules for parts 4 to 7. **The project** gets part 3, an account in its own name, without building a payments office. **The business** sees parts 2, 4 and 6: a page to open, a thing to buy, and a record that shows its name next to the work.

## frequently asked questions

### what is a nature market platform?

It is the set of tools behind a regional nature market: a project pipeline, listings, an account per project, an instrument, payments, a public record, and evidence. A region can build them, license them, or borrow them.

### what is an impact marketplace?

The same idea under a wider name: a place where buyers fund named outcomes, for nature or anything else, with a record of who funded what. A nature market is an impact marketplace for living places.

### which part does our region have to build itself?

The pipeline. Everything else exists somewhere already. [You do not have to build the marketplace](/guide/you-do-not-have-to-build-the-marketplace?from=guide) walks the build-or-borrow choice.

### how do we stop double counting?

One record per project. If a project is listed with a vendor and on ensurance, choose one place where its funding is recorded and say so on both.

## next step

Take your specification or vendor brief and mark each of the seven parts: build, license, or borrow. If six of them say build, [read the hub post](/guide/how-to-launch-a-nature-market-for-your-city?from=guide) before you tender. Regional partnerships can start from [the regional collaboratives page](/solutions/regional-collaboratives?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market), and councils from [the governments page](/solutions/governments?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market). Or [tell us which parts you already have](/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/): the initial pipeline
- [WMCA Nature Hub](https://naturehub.wmca.org.uk/) and [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/): alignment with the strategy, the annual impact report
- [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): credits or project funding
- [Cundall, North East Carbon and Nature Marketplace guide](https://www.cundall.com/ideas/publications/north-east-carbon-and-nature-marketplace-marketplace-guide): the integrity framework and guide
- [Gaia, Cornwall Council case study](https://gaiacompany.io/case-studies/cornwall-council/): the Natural Capital Exchange and its panel
- [Defra, Projects for Nature, 24 November 2025](https://defraenvironment.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/24/projects-for-nature-celebrates-a-major-step-towards-mobilising-private-finance-into-nature/) and [the Spacehive contract notice](https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/040954-2025): screening and the platform
- [GOV.UK, understanding biodiversity net gain](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understanding-biodiversity-net-gain): the 10% rule, the 30-year minimum and the gain site register
- [Environment Bank](https://www.environmentbank.com/): habitat banks

## 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** (you are here)
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)