Global investment manager New Forests has partnered with biodiversity intelligence platform NatureHelm to deliver one of the most expansive Nature Positive Initiative pilot projects to date, calculating seven state of nature metrics across more than 400,000 hectares of forest and agricultural assets in Australia, the United States and Africa. The project, announced on 30 April 2026, also analysed nature metrics across more than 34.8 million hectares of surrounding land. The pilot matters because it provides one of the first operational examples of how nature positive measurement can be standardised across a global investment portfolio, addressing a long standing gap in how investors quantify their biodiversity impact at scale.

 

The Scope and Scale of the Pilot

 

The pilot project is significant in both scale and methodological scope. The seven state of nature metrics calculated under the Nature Positive Initiative guidelines were applied to more than 400,000 hectares of New Forests managed assets, including diverse forest assets across Australia, the United States and Africa, as well as agricultural landscapes within Western Australia's South Coast Natural Resource Management Frankland region. The wider analysis covered more than 34.8 million hectares surrounding these assets, providing context on the broader landscape conditions in which the assets operate.

This combination of asset level and landscape level analysis is significant because biodiversity outcomes cannot be assessed in isolation from surrounding ecological conditions. An asset that performs well on internal metrics but operates within a degraded broader landscape may face different risks and opportunities than an asset embedded within a healthy regional ecosystem. By providing both perspectives, the pilot offers a more complete picture of nature performance than asset level reporting alone can deliver.

 

The Technology Platform Behind the Pilot

 

NatureHelm's biodiversity intelligence platform is built on deep biodiversity expertise combined with big data and machine learning. The platform ingests ground truthed data and uses it to connect specific management activities, such as invasive species control and habitat restoration, to measurable state of nature improvements. This linkage between management actions and biodiversity outcomes is increasingly important because it allows asset owners to demonstrate that their interventions are producing real ecological change rather than simply maintaining existing conditions.

The platform's data driven approach also enables comparability and prioritisation across diverse geographies, which has historically been one of the most difficult challenges in nature based investing. Traditional approaches to biodiversity measurement have relied on project specific or species specific outcomes that are not directly comparable across different ecosystems or land use types. By applying a standardised methodology across multiple regions and asset categories, the NatureHelm platform makes it possible to evaluate nature performance on a portfolio wide basis using consistent metrics.

 

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Why Standardised Nature Measurement Matters

 

The pilot addresses a critical gap in the rapidly maturing field of nature based investing. Global investors are increasingly demanding sophisticated, comparable data to meet their ESG and impact reporting requirements, while companies are progressively reporting against the Taskforce on Nature related Financial Disclosures recommendations. However, the lack of standardised methodologies for measuring biodiversity outcomes has made it difficult for investors to compare performance across different assets or to aggregate nature data at the portfolio level.

NatureHelm offers a solution to this challenge by enabling quantification of the state of nature and associated impacts at scale without the prohibitive costs that have historically been associated with detailed ecological assessments. The platform also provides a strong foundation for natural capital accounting, supporting the broader trend toward incorporating nature related metrics directly into financial reporting frameworks.

 

The Strategic Significance for New Forests

 

For New Forests, the pilot represents a structural improvement in how the firm reports on its nature performance. Jo Saleeba, Global Head of Sustainability and Impact at New Forests, framed the existing approach as relying on project or species specific outcomes that did not facilitate a portfolio wide and balanced view. The Nature Positive Initiative state of nature metrics introduce a consistent methodology that allows the firm to compare nature outcomes across time, location and asset type, while also linking those outcomes directly to specific management decisions.

This methodological consistency is commercially significant because it strengthens the credibility of nature performance claims for investor reporting and for engagement with regulators and stakeholders. As nature related disclosure requirements continue to develop globally, asset managers that have already deployed standardised measurement systems will be better positioned to meet emerging requirements without significant additional implementation work. New Forests and NatureHelm are now looking to expand the pilot work across the full New Forests global portfolio covering 4.4 million hectares, which would set a benchmark for state of nature assessment in nature based investing.

 

The Wider Industry Context

 

Doctor Debbie Saunders, Co founder and Chief Executive Officer of NatureHelm, framed the pilot as evidence that nature positive can be a measurable financial and ecological reality rather than a marketing slogan. By linking business operations directly to biodiversity extent, condition and species across millions of hectares, the platform enables the financial sector to move from ambition to actionable risk adjusted investment in nature. The framing reflects how leading nature data providers are positioning their platforms as core infrastructure for the maturing nature based finance market.

The Nature Positive Initiative is a global initiative aimed at halting and reversing nature loss by 2030 against a 2020 baseline, and achieving full recovery by 2050. By participating in one of the largest pilots of the initiative's metrics, New Forests is positioning itself among the early adopters of methodologies that are likely to become standard practice across the industry over the coming years. As more asset managers and corporate landholders adopt similar measurement approaches, the comparability of nature performance data across the sector will improve significantly.

 

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The Connection Between Nature Measurement and Natural Capital

 

The pilot also provides a foundation for the monetisation of nature. By linking management activities to measurable state of nature improvements through standardised metrics, the platform creates the data infrastructure required to support the development of natural capital markets. As frameworks for biodiversity credits, nature based outcome bonds and other natural capital instruments continue to develop, the availability of credible measurement systems will be one of the most important determinants of how quickly these markets can scale.

For New Forests, the pilot positions the firm to participate in emerging natural capital opportunities as they mature. For NatureHelm, the project demonstrates how the platform can support the broader transition of nature performance from a qualitative narrative into a quantifiable financial asset. For other asset managers and corporate landholders, the pilot provides a reference example of how standardised nature measurement can be implemented at scale across diverse geographies and land use types.

 

What the Pilot Signals for Nature Based Investing

 

The wider significance of the New Forests NatureHelm pilot lies in what it indicates about the operational maturity of nature based investing. Earlier generations of nature investment relied heavily on case study reporting and qualitative narratives about specific project outcomes. The current generation is increasingly built around standardised quantitative metrics that can be aggregated across portfolios and compared across asset managers. The pilot provides one of the most concrete examples to date of how this transition can be operationalised at meaningful scale.

For institutional investors evaluating nature based strategies, the availability of standardised measurement platforms reduces the operational barrier to allocating capital to the asset class. For other asset managers monitoring the development of nature finance, the pilot provides a useful template for how to integrate biodiversity measurement into investment management workflows. The performance of the expanded programme over the coming years, measured by adoption across the broader industry and by the credibility of the nature performance claims it supports, will play a significant role in shaping how nature based investing scales toward the multi billion dollar volumes that the energy transition has already achieved.

 

Source: New Forests