National statistics

15. Funding for Biodiversity

Updated 3 May 2024

Applies to England

Data last updated: November 2023

Latest data available: Financial year 2021/2022

Introduction

The first part of this indicator provides real-term, public sector spending on biodiversity in England. Spending is just one way of assessing the government’s commitment to biodiversity.

The second part of the indicator shows the level of real-term, spending on biodiversity in the UK by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with a focus on biodiversity and/or nature conservation. It is not possible to disaggregate NGO spending to country level at this time.

All total expenditure figures in this indicator are presented as financial year data and 2021/2022, for example, refers to the period April 2021 to March 2022.

Type of indicator

Response indicator

Assessment of change in expenditure on biodiversity

Public sector expenditure on biodiversity in England:

• Long term (2000/2001 to 2021/2022): Improving
• Short term (2016/2017 to 2021/2022): Improving
• Latest year (2020/2021 to 2021/2022): Increased

Non-governmental organisation spending on biodiversity in the UK:

• Long term (2010/2011 to 2021/2022): Improving
• Short term (2016/2017 to 2021/2022): Improving
• Latest year (2020/2021 to 2021/2022): Increased

Note on indicator assessment

The long-term and short-term assessments are based on a 3% rule of thumb. The base year for these assessments uses a 3-year average. See Assessing Indicators.

Funding for biodiversity: Public sector expenditure

Trend description for Figure 15.1

In 2021/2022, £534 million of public sector funding was spent on biodiversity in England; a real-term increase of 146% compared to the £218 million (in 2021/2022 prices) spent in 2000/2001 when the time series began (Figure 15.1).

Real-term, public sector expenditure on biodiversity increased considerably from 2000/2001 to a peak of £536 million in 2008/2009. It then decreased a little over the next 4 years, before peaking again in 2013/2014 at an all-time high of £543 million. The indicator then displayed annual decreases over the next 4 years. More recently, real-term public sector expenditure on biodiversity in England increased slightly in both 2018/2019 and 2019/2020, increased more substantially in both 2020/2021 and 2021/2022, reaching £534 million.

Figure 15.1: Public sector expenditure on biodiversity in England, 2000/2001 to 2021/2022

Source: Defra and HM Treasury

Download the data for Figures 15.1 in ods format

Notes about Figure 15.1:

• data are adjusted for the effects of inflation using the UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP) deflator; therefore, data presented here are not directly comparable to those in previous publications because a new deflator is used to prepare each annual update
• there may be minor inconsistencies in the reporting of biodiversity expenditure from one year to the next (see background section for further details)
• revisions to past data series resulting from improved methodology or access to additional data can mean the chart (and figures) are not directly comparable to those presented in previous publications

More information on Figure 15.1

Payments made to farmers and land managers under agri-environment schemes (Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship) account for two-thirds (68% in 2021/2022) of annual public sector spending on biodiversity in England. Expenditure through the new Countryside Stewardship schemes, which over time will replace the old Environmental Stewardship schemes, has increased year-on-year since the schemes commenced in 2016 and in total, real-term payments apportioned to this indicator via agri-environment schemes rose by £17 million in 2021/2022. This increase reflects the increases seen in the number of agreements and area of land under agri-environmental schemes.

The remainder of the observed increase in this year’s indicator is largely due to increased contributions from the Forestry Commission. The Forestry Commission’s expenditure on biodiversity accounted for 23% of annual public sector spending on biodiversity in the UK, and in 2021/2022, total expenditure increased by £16 million.

Funding for biodiversity: Non-governmental organisation expenditure

Trend description for Figure 15.2

Spending on UK biodiversity by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with a focus on biodiversity and/or nature conservation amounted to £307 million in 2021/2022, a real-term increase of £99 million (47%) since the time series began in 2010/2011 and a real-term increase of £43 million (16%) in the last 5 years (Figure 15.2). There has also been a 27% (£66 million) real-term increase in NGO spend on UK biodiversity in the most recent year for which data are available (2021/2022).

Figure 15.2: Non-governmental organisation expenditure on biodiversity in the United Kingdom, 2010/2011 to 2021/2022

Source: Defra and HM Treasury

Download the data for Figures 15.2 in ods format

Notes about Figure 15.2:

• data are adjusted for the effects of inflation using the UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP) deflator; therefore, data presented here are not directly comparable to those in previous publications because a new deflator is used to prepare each annual update
• wherever possible, non-governmental organisation spend is net of government funding
• there may be minor inconsistencies in the reporting of biodiversity expenditure from one year to the next (see background section for further details)
• revisions to past data series resulting from improved methodology or access to additional data can mean the chart (and figures) are not directly comparable to those presented in previous publications

More information on Figure 15.2

The decrease in NGO spend on UK biodiversity in 2020/2021 was largely due to reductions in expenditure by the National Trust in response to a drop in income of over £200 million resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The observed increase in NGO spend on UK biodiversity in 2021/2022 is largely due to increases in expenditure by The National Trust and The Woodland Trust. Both organisations increased real-term expenditure in 2021/2022 due to a loosening of government guidelines around the COVID-19 pandemic. For The National Trust, real-term expenditure apportioned to this indicator increased by almost 87% (£20 million) in 2021/2022. And for The Woodland Trust, they also reported an increase in their real-term expenditure of 29% (£12 million) in 2021/2022.

Relevance

Spending is just one way of assessing the government’s commitment to biodiversity. Funding for conservation work is critical to the delivery of England’s biodiversity strategies.

The UK and England Biodiversity Indicators are currently being assessed alongside the Environment Improvement Plan Targets, and the new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework Targets, when this work has been completed the references to Biodiversity 2020 and the Aichi Global Biodiversity Framework Targets will be updated.

The indicator shows progress with commitments to improve the status of our wildlife and habitats. It is relevant across a range of outcomes in Biodiversity 2020: A strategy for England’s wildlife and ecosystem services as it underpins the actions needed to achieve those outcomes. The indicator is also relevant to international goals and targets (see Annex B of the aforementioned publication).

Background

The public sector expenditure indicator is based on a combination of expert opinion together with published and unpublished data from organisations across England. The data are collated by Defra statisticians to provide estimates of public sector spend on biodiversity in England between 2000/2001 and 2021/2022.

In 2014, Defra developed a measure of spend on UK biodiversity by NGOs with a focus on biodiversity and/or nature conservation. Although the measure does not include all the NGOs working in this field, it does compile data on biodiversity spending from 41 different organisations. These include 13 of the 47 Wildlife Trusts with the largest annual turnover, together with other well-known organisations such as RSPB, the Woodland Trust and WWF-UK. The data are used to provide estimates of spending on biodiversity in the UK between 2010/2011 and 2021/2022; wherever possible these figures are net of any government-funded spend.

NGO support for, and action on biodiversity, some of which is funded by businesses and private individuals, is an important contribution to achieving biodiversity targets. Therefore, capturing the contribution of NGOs is a key element of tracking the UK’s conservation efforts and including this source of expenditure gives a more complete picture of biodiversity expenditure in the UK. It is not currently possible to disaggregate this measure to country level or to reliably report NGO spending on international biodiversity.

The public sector and NGO indicators include direct expenditure on nature reserves and conservation measures together with spending on relevant research and development; they generally exclude expenditure on administration and training. Where possible, indirect expenditure (for example, transfers to other organisations) has also been excluded from the indicator to avoid any double counting of financial flows. Judgment has been employed to finalise some components of the totals and the figures should be taken as approximate.

Restructuring of government departments, changes to funding streams and/or projects and the outsourcing of work relating to biodiversity (for example, research and development) mean that there may be some inconsistencies in the reporting of biodiversity expenditure from one year to the next. The limited coverage of the NGO indicator together with the complexities involved in both defining and identifying expenditure on biodiversity also mean that the public sector and NGO figures are likely to be an underestimation; they do however provide a clear trend of biodiversity expenditure since the beginning of 2000/2001 (public sector) and 2010/2011 (NGOs). It is hoped that further development work will lead to improvements in the overall accuracy of future publications.

A full list of public sector and non-governmental organisations included in this indicator together with further details of the methodology used to produce the totals are available in the technical background document: funding for biodiversity in England.

The GDP deflator is a measure of general inflation in the domestic economy – it captures the price changes over a period of time. The deflator is expressed in terms of an index number. It is used here to convert historic prices into constant, 2021/2022 prices, thereby allowing meaningful comparisons to be made between biodiversity expenditure in different years. It does however mean that data presented here are not directly comparable to those in previous publications because a new deflator is used to prepare each annual update.

Web links for further information

Further information about funding for biodiversity is available through the following web link:

• Defra: Technical background document: Funding for biodiversity in England