Esmée’s Director of Our Natural World, Liam McAleese, reflects on the findings of a review into our work towards space for nature and the recommendations for Esmée’s work going forwards.
Nature recovery in the UK has changed significantly since we launched our current strategy in 2020. There are stronger targets and frameworks, new partnerships and growing interest in how finance can support nature. But the central challenge remains: turning that progress into change on the ground.
To help us understand what is working, what is getting in the way, and where Esmée can make the greatest difference, we commissioned 3KQ to review our support towards nature restoration at scale on land and at sea. It’s one of two of our long-term outcomes under our space for nature funding priority.
As part of the review, we heard from 56 people from 49 organisations through seven thematic workshops, alongside analysis of grant reports and input from the Esmée team. That breadth of engagement has given us valuable insights, both into our own role and the wider conditions for nature recovery.
Stronger foundations, but persistent barriers
One of the clearest messages is that the foundations for nature recovery are stronger than they were in 2020, but delivery has not kept pace. Organisations are working against external pressures that make progress harder to sustain, while capacity constraints force many to respond to immediate challenges rather than pursue more ambitious, long-term change.
At the same time, the review shows what long-term, flexible funding can enable. We heard examples of funding helping organisations to strengthen policy and environmental law, develop approaches to financing nature, and build evidence and data infrastructure. We also heard about the importance of supporting large-scale collaboration, community action, leadership and ownership, and work on diversity, equity and inclusion.
For us, this reinforces something important. Practical restoration matters, but so do the less visible conditions that allow nature recovery to happen at scale: effective policy and advocacy, good evidence, finance, strong organisations, collaboration and accountability.
What next for Esmée
The review gives us a number of practical recommendations. We will:
- Continue investing in long-term, flexible funding, particularly for systems work across policy, advocacy, finance, data and evidence.
- Use our convening role more intentionally, creating opportunities for organisations to connect, learn from one another and work together around shared challenges.
- Build stronger connections beyond the environmental sector, including with business and finance, recognising that nature recovery cannot be achieved by environmental organisations alone.
- Explore expanding our Land Purchase Facility, building on the role land acquisition can play in enabling restoration and community ownership.
- Be clearer about what we fund and why, communicating our priorities, portfolio and approach to change more effectively.
- Share more of what we are learning, so that insights from the organisations we support can benefit others.
But perhaps the most important lesson is broader. Esmée’s role is not simply to fund nature projects. It is to back the people, organisations, partnerships and conditions that can make nature recovery happen at greater scale and last over the long term.
We will be more focused about where practical conservation funding can add most value: making fewer, larger investments with the potential to influence practice at scale and advance our wider priorities. We will prioritise models that shift power to communities, reduce environmental inequalities and deliver greater benefits for those most affected by environmental harm. Alongside this, we will step up our work on the systems that can accelerate – or block – nature recovery, using policy, finance, law, data and evidence to drive change and strengthen accountability.
A big thank you to Rhuari Bennett and Ruth Dalton at 3KQ for all their work on the review. We are grateful to everyone who contributed so openly to the review. Their perspectives will shape the choices we make over the remainder of our current strategy and help us define Esmée’s longer-term role in supporting nature recovery at scale.
