In simple terms, a nature credit represents a unit of environmental improvement; like carbon storage from tree planting or increased biodiversity from new grassland meadows and nature credits can be traded in what is known as a nature market.
Nature markets matter. When they are designed well, with high environmental standards at their centre, they drive real and lasting environmental change – underpinned by financial returns that lock in that change for generations to come.
However, nature is complex, interconnected, and hard to measure. So when these environmental improvements are sold as credits, we need checks in place to ensure that what is being sold is real environmental improvement.
This is where the Nature Investment Standards come in.
March 2026 marked an important step forward for nature markets. We were pleased to support the publication of New Nature Investment Standards , giving domestic nature markets clearer guidance on what ‘good’ looks like. These new standards, Biodiversity (Flex 702) and Nutrients (Flex 704), build on an Overarching Principles Standard (Flex 701), and sit alongside new Assessment Guidance and case studies from our early adopter organisations, which we told you about in a blog post in November.
We’ve been hearing a lot of questions from credit suppliers and market intermediaries about what these standards mean, and how to comply wth them.
This post is here to help!
Start with the basics: the terminology
Let’s go through the terminology.
Assurance is the overall process which provides trust in an outcome, e.g. that there is full alignment with a relevant standard.
Conformity assessment is the process of checking or testing whether something meets a standard or other specified requirement. It could involve reviewing procedures, collecting evidence or testing outputs.
Self-assessment is when an organisation or project checks itself against a standard, using its own expertise.
Certification is when assurance is achieved by using external, third-party expertise to check conformity over time (resulting in a certificate).
For more information, read the BSI hub glossary section.
Giving UK nature markets confidence
Assurance is about giving the market confidence that they can trust that the credit on sale represents real environmental outcomes, measured properly and based on robust evidence.
To understand what needs assuring, it helps to break things down into two things the standards can be used to assure: functions and credits.
Functions are the activities, methods or processes an organisation carries out as part of the nature market - whether that's supplying credits, operating a registry (a database of credits and their status), running a crediting programme, or providing verification services. It tells the market that the organisations involved are following robust methods and acting with high integrity.
Credits are the tradeable units that buyers purchase. For a credit to be considered assured, each part of the chain involved in performing functions for generating, trading and storing it needs to have been assessed. Different organisations may be performing those functions for the assurance of one credit, which means that each function for each organisation would need to be assured. Where organisations have had their functions assured in a chain for one credit, they will not need to be re-assured for performing the same function in a different chain for assurance of a different credit.
This is a core practical feature of the framework. If, for example, a registry has assured its operating processes, or the crediting programme you're working with has already been assessed, this does not need to be repeated. Assurance is only revisited once its validity period expires. This should ensure that the overall burden remains proportionate, with each individual actor only needing to demonstrate assurance against what is in their control.
The self-assessment route is where most organisations will start
For the next two years, self-assessment is the starting point for assurance. This means that your organisation would assess its own conformity, document the process transparently, and publish a short report explaining how you meet the requirements. This reflects stakeholder feedback calling for a phased introduction of third-party assurance, giving the market time to adapt while signalling a clear direction of travel.
Self-assessment isn't a shortcut or a lesser form of assurance - it's a legitimate and recognised part of the framework. Done well, following the guidance templates provided in the Assessment Guidance appendices (which can be seen on the Nature Investment Standards Hub), it signals clearly to buyers, investors and other counterparties that you take integrity seriously and have done the work to demonstrate it. It also functions as useful preparation for third-party assessment when that becomes the norm.
The guidance is explicit that self-assessment should be transparent. There is an expectation that supporting evidence will be documented and published unless there is good reason not to. Transparency isn't just good practice. It's built into what conformity means under these standards.
What this means for buyers and investors
Assurance gives you something concrete to work with. An assured function tells you that the party providing it has been assessed against a defined set of requirements in the standards. An assured credit tells you that the entire chain – generation (producing the credit through a real-world activity), trading (selling to a buyer), storage (of the credit on a registry) - has been through that process and meet the standard.
The framework is designed to grow with the market
We are providing the tools for market suppliers and intermediaries to start using the standards. Meanwhile, we want to start setting up the long-term assurance framework. Over the next two years, we will continue working closely with BSI, the UK Accreditation Service and industry experts to continue developing the framework anchored in integrity, flexibility and accredited certification.
There will be opportunities for users of the standards to be part of testing our long-term assurance framework. We encourage you to start your own journey of self-assessment as soon as possible and look out for any opportunities to be part of testing and learning from accredited certification.
More information on everything mentioned in this post can be found in the Assessment Guidance documents and appendices on the BSI hub here (you will need to log in for free to access the documents), or can be seen as guidance on gov.uk).
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