Landscape Enterprise Networks (LENs) has announced the beginning of a new phase of rapid scaling for the programme, which is already helping to boost the health and resilience of landscapes across the UK and Europe.
Building on the programme’s success delivering more resilient landscapes over the past six years, LENs will strengthen the systems and processes that underpin the collaboration at the heart of LENs.
Founded by sustainability consultancy 3Keel, LENs brings together businesses, public bodies, NGOs, farmers and land managers, to finance and implement initiatives that ensure the landscapes in their region thrive and continue to meet the needs of businesses, land enterprises, communities and nature.
In 2024, LENs projects collaborated with organisations across five landscapes – in the UK, Italy, Hungary and Poland – with more than 300 farmers delivering over €12.5 million (around £10.5 million) in measures that improved the resilience of more than 45,000 hectares of land.
Key outcomes included increasing soil carbon, promoting soil health, boosting biodiversity, mitigating flood risk and creating habitats for pollinators.
Donald Lunan, LENs Company Interim CEO, said, “The evidence from the six years we’ve been in operation is clear. We know that LENs works. At multiple locations across the UK and Europe, LENs projects have already proved highly effective at building business partnerships for resilient landscapes.
“To accelerate further and faster, we have to ensure that our systems and processes are as resilient as we want our landscapes to be. This means evolving how LENs operates, so it can be a robust, efficient model capable of involving an increasing number of buyers and sellers of ecosystem services across more regions of the world.”
The next phase of operations will see new, curated packages of measures optimised to focus on outcomes for demand-side partners and enabling a greater focus on impact.
With farmers and land managers central to the success of LENs, the next phase of operations will also see the evolution of LENs’ farmer-engagement strategy.
The introduction of a ‘Regen Pathway’ will help farmers identify concrete steps that they can take towards a more regenerative system. It will also enable LENs to capture farmers’ progress on their journey from conventional to regenerative farming practices – as well as provide targeted support along the Pathway.
Ultimately, the new measures will provide farmers with a clear understanding of what they can expect on everything from their eligibility for LENs and the measures involved, through to technical support and payments.
Lunan said, “We know that collaboration between farmers, food companies and other actors is absolutely key to transforming the resilience of local landscapes. We also know that we can only solve the joint crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and soil degradation by working coherently at scale.
“LENs makes it easy for partners to collectively achieve their goals, and this new phase in the evolution of LENs enables us to respond to this increasing urgency – enabling stakeholders to make our landscapes healthier, more productive and more resilient to the challenges ahead.”