We don’t necessarily need to own land to help scale rewilding. NCIP – nature and community regeneration in perpetuity – is a new model through which Highlands Rewilding, the company where I work as executive director for business development, offers plots of land for sale to buyers who can guarantee the restoration of nature and the growth of community prosperity, in perpetuity. The buyers are able to guarantee this through the formation of a charitable trust, which pledges to do so through commitment to upholding the trust’s articles and purpose. Highlands Rewilding Ltd (HRL) manages the land to achieve these goals, sharing the proceeds from natural capital monetisation with the trust on a win:win basis.
It is a unique asset-lite data rich business model that has already seen success at Barrahormid, a large tract of land that was a part of the Tayvallich Estate, sold to the Barrahormid Trust earlier this year. It was widely celebrated for the commitment to embedding community benefit into future carbon and biodiversity uplift, and for prioritising rural repopulation. The Trust entered into a long-term management arrangement with HRL, which operates all of the land management, in accordance with Highlands Rewilding’s mission and principles, the Memorandum of Understanding with the local community at Tayvallich, and the objectives of the Trust. The Barrahormid sale, in particular, provides a great opportunity nature recovery and nature related services, as well as for for potential development of ruined plots across the estate. The Trust agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the local community body, the Tayvallich Initiative, and Highlands Rewilding, which ensured that Rural Housing Burdens will be applied to this area, enabling future repopulation as housing will be used as primary residencies. HRL has a long-term lease, with token rent. We cover our own costs, and share net profits with the Trust.
How NCIP works:
All NCIP Land buyers must meet Highlands Rewilding’s Buyers Charter requirements, ensuring mission-congruence:
HRL currently has plots available for sale with the NCIP model preferred as the method of buying.