Aviva helps restore rare ancestral British rainforests

Aviva announces a £38 million donation to restore the UK’s lost temperate rainforest. Aviva believes this is one of nature’s most effective interventions to help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Restored rainforests will also make a positive contribution to overcoming the crisis of nature and biodiversity, as well as support flood protection and resilience. The donation is part of the Aviva Net Zero 2040 plan.

Native to the British Isles, the temperate rainforest is an incredibly rare and biodiverse habitat that once stretched from Cornwall to the west of Scotland. It now covers less than 1% of the UK in areas such as western Scotland, the Lake District and western Wales and is considered rarer than rainforest.

As part of the project, Aviva is partnering with The Wildlife Trusts, a federation of 46 local wildlife trusts that care for more than 2,300 community-based reserves in the UK. It aims to restore temperate rainforest by planting a combination of native tree species including oak, birch, holly, rowan, alder and willow in an area equivalent to about 2,600 football fields or about 5,200 acres.

The donation builds on Aviva Ireland’s recent €5 million donation to the Nature Fund to help accelerate its project to reforest native trees. It also supports Aviva’s commitment to making the UK’s economy the most climate-ready, following the recent launch of Aviva’s climate change preparedness campaign.

Amanda Blanc, Chief Executive Officer of Aviva Group, said: “The fact that Britain’s primordial rainforests will absorb carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere is reason enough for them to recover. But on top of that, they are incredibly rare and beautiful. This vital work we are doing with The Wildlife Trusts will give communities access to these places, improve their well-being and show how biodiversity fights and reduces the impacts of climate change. Aviva is proud to play its part in the restoration of the UK’s temperate rainforest, helping the UK become the world’s largest climate change-ready economy.”

Environmental benefits and biodiversity

The restored temperate rainforest will remove about 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the next 100 years. This is equivalent to the emissions created by one person making over 740,000 transatlantic flights*.

Carbon removal will start from 2024 and will be fastest around 2060, when forests are expected to remove about 24,000 tons of CO2 per year. Carbon removal will continue at a slower pace after 2130. The entire forest program is expected to result in a net reduction in atmospheric carbon from 2036. By 2040, when Aviva plans to become a Net Zero company, the projects are expected to remove more than 34,000 tons of emissions from the atmosphere.

Carbon removal should provide significant benefits for biodiversity and climate change adaptation by creating habitats that can support flora including mosses, lichens, ferns and a variety of unusual plants and wildlife such as wood warblers, bats, wood martens and red proteins. The increase in woodland should also help soften water flows and improve shading in the hotter, drier conditions expected due to climate change.

Community Involvement, Public Goods and Volunteering

Wildlife foundations have a long history of working alongside people to help nature recover – communities will be at the heart of these rainforest restorations. Rainforests will complement each area’s natural beauty and cultural heritage, as well as provide potential for volunteerism, green jobs and tourism. Wildlife Trusts temperate rainforest sites will be available to the public, which can improve mental health and well-being, encourage physical activity, and strengthen communities.

All Aviva colleagues in the UK will have the opportunity to use their volunteer leave at Wildlife Trust sites, including in the temperate rainforest. All Aviva employees can take three days of paid volunteer leave each year.

Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, said: “Wildlife Trusts has very strict criteria for what we consider to be a carbon credit scheme with a very high degree of integrity. Aviva’s approach lives up to our high standards. We are excited that we can now work with many other communities to help nature fight back, build resilience to climate change and improve the lives of everyone involved in these projects.

“We believe that a huge number of natural solutions are needed to combat climate change, but it is very important that these solutions are not used as an excuse to continue the polluting “business as usual” model that cannot reduce emissions to the source. Too often, companies try to put the genie back in the bottle, but Aviva is taking a more forward-thinking approach. The company is investing in restoring nature to store carbon 20 years before the carbon associated with a potential Aviva investment enters the atmosphere. It deserves applause.”

Aviva’s post helps restore rare native British rainforests first appeared on Fintech Finance.

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