📢 BioGains Achieves DEFRA Designation as a Responsible Body for Conservation Covenants

We are pleased to announce that BioGains has been formally designated by DEFRA as a Responsible Body under the Environment Act 2021.

This designation is a critical regulatory milestone within the emerging UK nature markets. It enables BioGains to enter and manage Conservation Covenants—the legally binding 30-year agreements required to secure Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), nutrient mitigation, carbon-linked habitat schemes, and wider ecosystem service delivery.

Why this matters for ESG, BNG & Nature Finance:

🔹 Market Integrity: Conservation Covenants provide the long-term legal durability demanded by institutional buyers, auditors, and insurers for nature-based assets.

🔹 Scalability: BioGains can now operate end-to-end — from habitat creation and ecological monitoring to long-term governance — enabling bankable, multi-decade nature restoration projects.

🔹 Regulatory Assurance: Only a small number of organisations nationwide have met the governance, financial resilience and technical capability required for designation. BioGains becomes one of the very few commercial entities approved to hold and enforce these statutory agreements.

🔹 Pipeline Acceleration: This unlocks greater throughput of high-integrity habitat units within the BNG market, reducing delivery risk for developers, utilities, and infrastructure providers.

🔹 Alignment with Sustainable Finance Trends: Long-term covenanted nature assets support investor demand for credible, measurable environmental outcomes.

This designation reinforces BioGains’ role as a trusted environmental delivery partner and strengthens our principal investor, Origin Enterprises’ broader strategy to support scalable, high-quality nature-based solutions.