Iford Biodiversity Project News
Find the latest news and updates from the Iford Biodiversity Project in the heart of Sussex. Learn when our different phases of habitat creation take place, and find out about our open days and any new developments with our BNG offerings. If you need more information or are interested in our BNG units for sale, don’t hesitate to contact us and follow us on social media for regular updates.
Oct 2025
Launch of our
Voluntary Biodiversity Credits
Businesses from any sector can voluntarily invest in nature and help support high-impact biodiversity projects. Much like carbon credits, businesses are able to financially support off-site projects that are best positioned to protect and restore threatened or degraded habitats and the wildlife within them.
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A voluntary biodiversity credit represents a 3m x 3m area of land with a unique What3Words address and supports the creation of woodland, grassland or wetlands at Iford Estate. businesses receive the ‘credit’ for their support of this portion of the biodiversity project.
Watch Our New Video Here
Sept 2025
Morever​ Corperate
Away Day
Ahead of our launch of Voluntary Biodiversity Credits, we invited a selection of local business entrepreneurs and disrupters to come and see the Iford Biodiversity Project and learn more about out VBC's. We have been working closely with Morever over the last 6 weeks and we can't wait to launch our new biodiversity offering for individuals and businesses who want to invest in developing the Iford Biodiversity Project.
8th Sept 2025
Business Green
Article
Rooted in resilience: How collaboration is cultivating a regenerative future on UK farms
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"We've been farming regeneratively for 15 years at Iford," says Taylor. "It started off as cost-reduction — stopping ploughing seemed cheaper. But as we learnt more from others, the environmental benefits became clear."
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June 2025
Visit from the
Indonesian Minister of Environment
We had a fantastic visit from the Environment Minister of Indonesia, Hasif Faisol Nurofiq. We were thrilled to have been selected as the UK project that the Indonesian Minister wished to visit and spent the afternoon discussing the benefits and practicalities of BNG and ESG.
June 2025
Haskoning Corporate
Away Day
To Launch our corporate away days we had a wonderful visit from Haskoning, Global Consulting Engineers. They were thrilled to come and explore the site on a 2 hour guided walk by our Managing Director, Ben Taylor. This was accompanied by a talk about the project and a delicious lunch by flint owl.
Sept 2024
BBC Sounds
The 100 Mile Wildlife Corridor
"Martha Kearney follows the River Ouse, from the High Weald to the Sussex coast and - finally - into the sea itself. Along the way, she discovers how one of the UK's largest nature recovery projects is taking root. The project is called 'Weald to Waves' - it's a wildlife corridor that has been mapped out over more than 100 miles of Sussex landscape and coastline, to encourage biodiversity on a huge scale, connecting food, farming, nature and people."
July 2024
Wildlife Walks.
Iford Estate are pleased to launch our Wildlife Walks this summer. With expert ecologist Rachel Bicker to guide you we will take you on a behind the scenes walk, explaining some of the flora and fauna you see, the management behind it and the plans for widespread nature restoration on the outskirts of Lewes.
Houndean Farm is the focal point for Iford Estate’s nature restoration vision with a stunning wildflower meadow created in 2023 and further plans for woodland and scrub creation. We are already seeing wildlife returning to this previously farmed landscape, and our Wildlife Walks will enable you to identify species and enjoy the stunning scenery.
Jan 2024
Guardian Article
Flowers everywhere? England’s ambitious scheme to restore wildlife hangs in the balance
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“We’re habitat banking,” says Ben Taylor, manager of Iford Estate farm near Lewes, in East Sussex. This farm is one of five in the country selected by government as a pilot project for the biodiversity net gain (BNG) scheme."
July 2023
106 Agreement
Completed on July 18, the legal agreement means 31ha of land at Iford Estate – equating to 210 biodiversity units – is the first to appear on the SDNPA’s register of land formally ‘dedicated’ for BNG provision.
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The BNG Section 106 is the result of a huge effort by a range of experts, including the team at Iford, the SDNPA, the environment and farming consultants CLM, Lux Nova Partners (a law firm specialising in the clean energy and environmental sectors) and Town Legal (a specialist law firm).
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June 2023
Open Day
We were very pleased to welcome 150 people to our recent open day, showcasing our plans for Biodiversity Improvement at Iford. Guests enjoyed a presentation of our journey towards Landscape scale followed by a tour of the farm by tractor and trailer. Ben Taylor (Iford Estate) and Anthony Weston of consultants CLM outlined the plans followed by a great line up of guest speakers including Mark Alden and Nick Heasman from South Downs National Park, outlining the nature of the collaboration between Iford and SDNP and their ambitions for nature recover with their ReNature programme.
Steph Matthews, Principal Advisor for Biodiversity Net Gain at Natural England gave a presentation about the National Credits Scheme and Glenn Anderson from Wendling Beck gave an overview of his Nature Recovery Scheme and the launch of National Nature Networks, a collaboration of 5 landscape scale recovery projects around the country, including Iford Estate.
ITV - Iford Biodiversity Project Open Day
MAY 2023
Initial
Habitat Bank
We are very pleased to announce that following a long, cold and wet Spring we have been busy sowing the first phase of our Biodiversity Project this week. The initial area, formerly arable land, has been sown with a flower rich grass mixture with many native species of grass and flowers including Black Knapweed, Selfheal, Birdsfoot Trefoil, Black Meddick, Yellow Rattle, Red and White Campion, Lady’s Bedstraw and Sorrel. In the autumn selected areas will be planted with scrub and trees to complete the habitat restoration vision.
