Blog

Climate Emergency

beaver_blog_header

Why are Beavers Ecosystem Engineers?

Why are beavers ecosystem engineers?

Beavers are some of the world’s most skilled ecosystem engineers, with an incredible ability to create new wetlands, restore native woodland, and improve habitats for a wide range of species. They are a ‘keystone’ species of wetland habitats, meaning that are wide array of other species, from fish and frogs; to insects and birds, are impacted by their presence in the ecosystem. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/06/englands-first-wild-beavers-for-400-years-allowed-to-live-on-river-otter">In August 2020</a>, the first beavers to live in England for centuries were given official permission by the government to remain in their home in Devon after a five-year reintroduction trial. This was the first legally sanctioned reintroduction of an extinct native mammal to England. 
Beavers were once native to the UK, and were widespread across the whole of Europe. However they were <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/saving-species/beavers">hunted to extinction</a> in the UK in the early 1500s and by the end of the 19th century only a few groups remained in Europe. This is because they were good to eat, easy to catch, and they had dense, soft fur that was great for making clothes and hats. In addition, beaver glands contain salicylic acid from their willow diet, which was once prized as a medical cure-all. A single beaver gland could be the same as an <a href="https://beavertrust.org/index.php/beavers-create-healthy-rivers-for-wildlife-and-people/#beaverbasics">entire year’s wages</a> for a medieval worker. 
Beavers used to be an integral part of our landscape, however they were pushed to extinction by human activity. With the loss of a species comes the loss of balance within the ecosystem, ultimately resulting in a more vulnerable, less resilient, environment. As climate change brings more extreme weather, our river systems have become more restricted and we are facing a biodiversity crisis. In recent years the value of beavers as ecosystem engineers, and as a potential solution to some of our problems, has been recognised, and they have been brought back from the brink with reintroduction schemes in <a href="https://www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/what-we-do/our-conservation-work/on-land/cornwall-beaver-project">27 European countries.</a>

Beavers are natural ecosystem engineers. They change the habitats that they live in by digging canal systems, damming water courses, and coppicing trees and shrubs. This creates diverse wetland habitats that bring enormous benefits to other species, such as otters, water shrews, water voles, birds, dragonflies, and breeding fish. They have an extraordinary ability to restore degraded habitats, transforming small insignificant streams into cascading mosaics of dams, pools and wetlands. These habitats: 
Alleviate flooding 
By creating dams, channels and wetland habitats, beavers increase the capacity of the land to store water and to produce a more consistent outflow below their dams. These habitats hold back water and release it more slowly after storms or heavy rain, reducing the height of flood peaks. Water being released more slowly also improves low flows during dry periods as water leaking from the dams recharges dry streams, improving water availability during times of drought. 
Boost biodiversity
Beavers create diverse wetland habitats that provide a home for a wide range of wildlife. They also fell trees and bushes, which diversifies the surrounding habitat and, as the trees start to grow back, creates areas of mixed-height, mixed-age vegetation, which is brilliant for encouraging a wide range of species to live there.
Improve water quality 
Beaver dams slow and filter water, causing sediment and nutrients to be deposited in ponds. This improves the quality of water flowing from sites where beavers are present. 
Engage the Community 
People are fascinated by beavers. The presence of beavers in an area provides an opportunity for people to engage with wildlife and conservation efforts, as well as creating a market for nature tourism in some places.

beaver_blog_1

The capabilities and benefits that beavers bring to local areas have led to the instigation of new projects over the past 10 years to encourage the return of beavers to specific enclosed sites in the UK including Devon, Cornwall and Scotland.

The first beaver reintroduction trial in the UK took place in Scotland. <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2018-11/181023%20Beaver%20Brochure_WEB.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In 2009, the Scottish Wildlife Trust</a> released the first wild beavers for over 400 years, in Knapdale Forest, Argyll. Beavers temporarily increased the water storage in the larger lochs. This caused the elevation and stabilisation of water levels in small lochs which reduced the impact of flooding downstream. The most striking effect was seen in a small pond, Dubh loch, in which a dam caused a <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2018-11/181023%20Beaver%20Brochure_WEB.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rise in water level of 1.1m</a>, reducing the rate of water flow out of the pond and alleviating flooding of the local area. The beavers also greatly increased the habitat diversity of the site, providing more niches for different species.  
The findings of this project were so successful that they persuaded the Scottish Government to allow beavers to remain, and commit to granting the species a legal protected status. In October 2017, a three-year reinforcement project began, with the release of three more beavers into Knapdale Forest and further releases in spring 2018.

<a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2018-11/181023%20Beaver%20Brochure_WEB.pdf">In 2011, the Devon Wildlife Trust</a> introduced one beaver family group to a 3-hectare enclosed area of land in West Devon. They are working with the University of Exeter to monitor the effects of beavers on the habitats, and so far have found that: 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The habitats created store a massive<a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2018-11/181023%20Beaver%20Brochure_WEB.pdf"> 56 litres of water per m2</a> of land. This has the potential to significantly reduce the impact of flooding downstream. Beavers have constructed 13 dams within the area of the project, meaning that the land will now hold up to <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2018-11/181023%20Beaver%20Brochure_WEB.pdf">one million extra litres of water</a>.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">During storms and heavy rainfall, peak flows were, on average, <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2018-11/181023%20Beaver%20Brochure_WEB.pdf">30% lower</a> leaving the site than entering. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">During storm events each litre of surface water leaving the site had <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2018-11/181023%20Beaver%20Brochure_WEB.pdf">three times less sediment</a> than the water entering the site.</li>
</ul>
The diversity of both plants and invertebrates increased, with the number of beetle species more than tripling since the beavers were introduced. This increase in prey has led to more species of bats being recorded, including rare species such as <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/mammals/barbastelle-bat">Barbastelle bats</a>.

<a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2018-11/181023%20Beaver%20Brochure_WEB.pdf">In June 2017,</a> two beavers were released into a 5-acre area of plantation woodland along Nankilly water, a stream at Woodland Valley Farm, near Ladock. The Nina Constable Media documentary ‘<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeOmBbLwPm4">Cornwall beaver project: the story so far</a>’ shows the phenomenal impact these beavers have already had. Data pre-beavers and post-beavers shows that just eight weeks after being introduced to the site, the beavers constructed four dams, the water level of the main pond rose by 70cm, and the flow gauge downstream of the site recorded a reduction in peak flow. This meant that the beaver dams were slowing down the flow of water through the site after heavy rainfall. 
The landscape is still evolving as new dams are constructed and existing ones are extended, holding water and slowing down the flow. Where it once took 15 minutes for water to flow through the site; it now takes an hour. There is great public support for this project: weekly ‘beaver watches’ help people to engage with the wildlife and raise funds, <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2018-11/181023%20Beaver%20Brochure_WEB.pdf">over 1000 people</a> have visited the site so far, and the farm has seen increased bookings for residential stays by schools, colleges and universities.

beaver_blog_2

Despite this myriad of benefits, beaver reintroductions can be met with resistance. There are sometimes concerns from farmers and fishermen about the impact that beavers will have on their livelihoods. Some of these concerns are valid, but if they are addressed with proper management strategies, they don’t need to cause an issue.  
Most schemes across the UK are in infancy, but in Bavaria beavers were reintroduced in the 1960s and are now having impacts on a large scale. In<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4Mmjm22GiY"> ‘Beavers without borders: a short documentary’</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C211b0nTwro&amp;t=1s">‘Living with beavers’</a>, both documentaries by Nina Constable, they looked to these trials in Bavaria to see what impacts beavers are capable of, and how humans have managed any negative effects. When beavers were first introduced to the area, their benefits quickly became clear and biodiversity flourished, with more dragonflies, fish and amphibians recorded, and even sightings of the rare black stork. 
However as the beaver populations grew, they started to move out of the rivers and into the agricultural lands. They inflicted small amounts of damage on fields, eating crops and flooding small areas and creating burrows which damaged farm machinery. There started to be some resistance against the beaver populations and in <a href="https://www.nature.scot/sites/default/files/2017-07/Publication%202015%20-%20SNH%20Commissioned%20Report%20812%20-%20Managing%20wild%20Eurasian%20beavers%20a%20review%20of%20European%20management%20practices%20with%20consideration%20for%20Scottish%20application.pdf">1996 </a>management strategies were devised to address these concerns. 
Farmers now get compensation for any damage and beavers can be caught or controlled if they are in the wrong place. They have also set up ‘set-asides’ in creeks in many areas, an area 5-10m to the right and left of the creek that is left for the beavers and nature to work, and have human land use 20m away. There is also a network of volunteer beaver consultants that give free advice to people who live near beavers or have beavers on their land. 
In the UK we can learn from these projects, and implement management strategies from the start. It’s important to listen and address people’s concerns, so that communities can support these necessary projects. The problems can be addressed and overcome, but the benefits of beavers cannot be imitated. Some of the management options that we have available to address any conflicts include: 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Flow devices – This involves putting a pipe through the dam which allows you to regulate the water level behind it.  </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Protecting trees- either put a mesh guard around the tree or paint a special paint substance on it which beavers don’t like.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Compensation and funding – providing compensation for damage, or funding to come up with innovative strategies such as building clay banks to redirect water away from farmers&#8217; fields. </li>
</ul>
Another key area of concern is how beaver introductions affect fish populations, with some people worrying that beaver dams create barriers for migrating fish such as salmon and trout. However these concerns are often unfounded.<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4Mmjm22GiY"> 70% of the world’s atlantic salmon</a> spawn in Norway, and of their top 10 salmon rivers, seven of them have beavers. Beavers do change the landscape considerably so they can have significant impacts on fish populations. However an <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-2979.2011.00421.x">independent review</a> of the interaction between beaver activity and freshwater fisheries found that benefits were cited more frequently than costs, and the majority of experts consider beavers to have an overall positive impact on fish populations.

artboard-1-copy-10

Artboard 1 copy 10

Beavers have an awe-inspiring ability to modify their environments for the better, and bring life back to the areas in which they live. Allowing the widespread return of beavers is an important step in starting to repair some of the damage we have done to our natural world. They have the potential to provide a natural and cost-effective solution to the serious issues of flooding, pollution, and species loss within the UK. Because beavers are so unique as ecosystem engineers, this isn’t just about the reintroduction of a species but about the reintroduction of an entire ecosystem. By boosting biodiversity, reducing the impact of floods and droughts, and creating spaces for nature to return, beavers could be a great ally in our fight against the climate crisis.
If you enjoyed this article and want to get involved – read our article on <a href="https://ecologi.com/articles/blog/how-does-deforestation-impact-wildlife-and-biodiversity-what-you-need-to-know">how deforestation is impacting wildlife</a>.
<a href="https://ecologi.com/plan"> Sign up to Ecologi</a> to support reforestation and climate action projects that help to protect biodiversity!

The Greenprint: Climate insights bulletin

blog_thegreenprint_header

Blog_TheGreenPrint_Header

Stay up-to-date with the biggest sustainability stories shaping the business landscape. Each edition highlights critical shifts in climate news, policy and finance, providing clear analysis of emerging risks and opportunities for sustainability professionals.

The Greenprint timeline

Connect with one of our climate experts

blog_carbon-credits_whitepaper_01blog_carbon-credits_whitepaper_header

Blog_Carbon credits_Whitepaper_01Blog_Carbon credits_Whitepaper_Header

UK Voluntary Carbon Market Guide: Best Practices for Climate Action

The voluntary carbon market plays an important role in corporate climate strategies – but its effectiveness relies on buyers doing due diligence and rigorous quality assessment on each project, as well as placing the purchase of credits in the right place in the climate journey.
To ensure meaningful climate impact, businesses must develop a comprehensive carbon strategy and find ways to fund only high-quality credits in the voluntary carbon market – and this guide shows you how to do so with Ecologi.

<h2>Table of contents</h2>
<ul>
<li>When to buy carbon credits</li>
<li>Our new carbon projects assessment framework</li>
<li>Ecologi&#8217;s core due diligence principles</li>
<li>How Ecologi scores and ranks carbon credit projects</li>
<li>Questions to ask your carbon credit supplier</li>
<li>Take action in the voluntary carbon market</li>
</ul>

blog_carbon-credits_whitepaper_01blog_carbon-credits_whitepaper_banner_01

Blog_Carbon-credits_Whitepaper_01Blog_Carbon-credits_Whitepaper_Banner_01

<h2>When should businesses buy carbon credits in the voluntary market?</h2>
Businesses must not use credits in place of making direct, measurable reductions in their emissions. Instead, follow these steps to ensure you buy your carbon credits on the right step of your corporate climate action journey, and in the right way:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Measure your emissions first – to allow you to understand where your business’s emissions are coming from. 
</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Set science-based targets and work towards them – set ambitious targets aligned with the SBTi and compatible with the global 1.5ºC warming target.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Beyond value chain mitigation (BVCM) – design your BVCM portfolio to work alongside your decarbonisation plan and address your unabated emissions in each reporting year. Align it with SBTi guidance and the Oxford Principles. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Buy high-quality carbon credits – use this guide to ensure the carbon credits you buy meet rigorous quality standards. Remember, under the SBTi framework you’ll also need permanent carbon removal credits for neutralising your residual emissions when you reach your net-zero date.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Disclose and report transparently – publicly disclose information about your carbon credit purchases, and clearly communicate the limited role of carbon credits in your broader sustainability strategy.</li>
</ol>

blog_carbon-credits_whitepaper_01blog_carbon-credits_whitepaper_banner_02

Blog_Carbon-credits_Whitepaper_01Blog_Carbon-credits_Whitepaper_Banner_02

<h2>Ecologi&#8217;s carbon project assessment framework</h2>
In April 2025, we published a report summarising how we assess carbon credit projects against our rigorous proprietary rubric. A snapshot of what goes into our carbon credit project assessment is below, or you <a href="https://cms-assets.offset.earth/app/uploads/20250428124112/Ecologi_Whitepaper_A4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">download the full whitepaper here</a>.

<h2>Carbon project due diligence: Ecologi’s core principles</h2>
At Ecologi, we maintain general due diligence principles which we apply universally across the voluntary carbon market, to support our efforts to supply only high-quality carbon credits.
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">ICROA-endorsed standards only – we supply credits exclusively from carbon standards which are ICROA-endorsed.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Responsive to ICVCM decisions – we support the ICVCM’s two-tick approach to providing CCP-Approval to project methodologies, and we go further still, to assess individual projects on their merits and limitations as well.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Keep the carbon credit life cycle as short as possible – 75% of our credits in 2024 came directly from project developers and their nominated dispensaries (as opposed to intermediaries on the secondary market), maximising the proportion of purchase price which goes to the developer.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Locally-appropriate projects only – we take care to ensure that supported projects are being applied in appropriate geographies, where they can have the greatest impact.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Deep project-level scrutiny – our extensive assessment criteria are specific to each type of project, and we assess every project against these criteria, ensuring the project’s specifics have been taken into account.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Methodological consensus – we synthesise data we receive from our partners Sylvera, BeZero Carbon, Calyx Global and Renoster) with our own in-house analysis to uncover where there is consensus about project quality, and improve confidence.</li>
</ul>

blog_carbon-credits_whitepaper_01blog_carbon-credits_whitepaper_banner_03

Blog_Carbon-credits_Whitepaper_01Blog_Carbon-credits_Whitepaper_Banner_03

<h2>How to evaluate carbon credits: Ecologi&#8217;s scoring methodology</h2>
We designed a three-layer assessment process which takes into account the merits and limitations of the carbon standard used, the carbon credit methodology used, and of the individual project design.
The tables below summarise some of the data inputs we use at each stage.

<h3>Assessment level: Carbon Standard</h3>
Examples: Gold Standard, Verra, Puro Earth, Isometric, Plan Vivo.

<h3>Assessment level: Methodology (or ‘Protocol’)</h3>
Examples: GS TPDDTEC, VM0048, ACM0002.

<h3>Assessment level: Project</h3>
Examples: GS 10790, VCS 1571.

Criteria in the assessment are categorised as either quality criteria or risk criteria, and are segmented by our three pillars of impact: Climate, Nature and People. Based on how it meets each criterion, the project gains points for quality criteria, and loses points for excess risk – ultimately giving a risk-adjusted value out of 100 for each of these pillars.
Having gathered our risk-adjusted pillar scores, we use our own unique scoring formula which weights the risk-adjusted Climate score of the project equally with the combined risk-adjusted Nature and People scores. The formula then produces an ‘overall’ score (also out of 100) for the project. In order to be supplied by Ecologi, projects must meet a minimum overall score of 80, and must achieve no lower than 65 in any given risk-adjusted pillar score.

blog_carbon-credits_whitepaper_01blog_carbon-credits_whitepaper_banner_04

Blog_Carbon-credits_Whitepaper_01Blog_Carbon-credits_Whitepaper_Banner_04

<h2>Key questions to ask carbon credit suppliers</h2>
Selecting the right carbon credit provider is important to help guide you to make informed choices as part of your corporate sustainability strategy. Before purchasing carbon credits, businesses should ask:
<h3>Project quality </h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you assess/validate/underwrite project quality? If so, how?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do your projects get good ratings from the ratings agencies? If so, what ratings are they?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you source credits directly from project developers, or from the secondary market?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you monitor projects over time to ensure continued success, and how do you remedy it, if a project&#8217;s quality drops?</li>
</ul>
<h3>Due diligence</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you ensure you are supporting the right projects in the right locations?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you account for project permanence and mitigate risks?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">What makes your projects additional?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you assess the project&#8217;s impacts on climate, nature and people?</li>
</ul>
<h3>Positioning</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you contribute to the development of a high integrity voluntary carbon market?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you align your portfolios with the Oxford Principles? If so, how?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you reflect ICVCM guidance on carbon credit methodologies and technologies?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you build multi-year portfolios that align to mid- &amp; long-term SBTs?</li>
</ul>
As the voluntary carbon market evolves, corporate buyers have the power and the responsibility to demand high-impact credits to drive real climate progress. This means buyers have a responsibility to do due diligence before placing an order for carbon credits.

<h2>Take action in the voluntary carbon market</h2>
As a business committed to corporate climate action, understanding the voluntary carbon market is essential for making informed decisions about carbon credits. Our comprehensive whitepaper provides deeper insights into creating an effective sustainability strategy.
<a href="https://cms-assets.offset.earth/app/uploads/20250428124112/Ecologi_Whitepaper_A4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Download our full whitepaper</a> to learn how your business can navigate the voluntary carbon market with confidence.

<h2>Connect with one of our climate experts</h2>
Please complete our form to arrange a 30-minute discovery call to discuss your goals and get a tailored solution for your business.

blog_goodnews_header-2

Blog_GoodNews_Header

The Good News timeline

It’s not all bad. While there’s a lot of negative news about the climate, let’s not forget the good stuff. Find climate wins, reasons to be hopeful and plenty of positivity in our good news timeline.

Why are beavers ecosystem engineers?

Why do we need beavers?

In depth: The Scottish Beaver Trial

In depth: The Devon Beaver Project

In depth: The Cornwall Beaver project

Lessons about management

More posts

The Greenprint: Climate insights bulletin

UK Voluntary Carbon Market Guide: Best Practices for Corporate Climate Action

The Good News timeline

Follow us

Members

Resources

© 2025 Ecologi

Stay in touch with Ecologi