What are Natural Asset Companies, and could they help farmers finance regenerative agriculture?
Farmers today face a double challenge: the pressure of a changing climate and degrading soils, coupled with the difficulty of accessing capital to improve land health and adopt regenerative practices. Meanwhile, the global value of healthy ecosystems (the clean water, fertile soils, carbon storage, and biodiversity they provide) has been estimated at $125 trillion per year, nearly half of the world's economic activity. Yet this immense value rarely appears on farm balance sheets.
What are Natural Asset Companies (NACs)?
Natural Asset Companies (NACs) aim to change that. Developed by the Intrinsic Exchange Group (IEG), NACs are a new type of company designed to finance conservation, restoration, and the growth of natural assets. They integrate the economic value of ecosystem services into a corporation with an equity capital structure. In practice, NACs can be applied to different types of land, from protected areas to working agricultural landscapes.
This article focuses on the agricultural use case and explores how NACs could be set up, what benefits they offer, and what risks farmers and ranchers should consider.
How NACs Work
A NAC is created around a defined landscape. Farmers and landowners contribute the "natural capital" of their land, while investors provide financing. The company then measures, manages, and grows the ecological value of that land over time.
Landowners usually hold a majority share (at least 51%), ensuring that they retain control over major decisions. However, since the company's goal is to build natural capital, certain practices that would harm ecosystem value, such as clearing forests, would not be allowed under the NAC structure.
Because of the scale required - about 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) - NACs work best when multiple farmers or ranchers join forces. Together, they can attract financing from development banks, consumer goods companies looking to strengthen their supply chains, or investors seeking long-term ecological value.
Unlike carbon credit schemes, which pay only for a single service, NACs capture the full range of ecosystem benefits - soil fertility, water regulation, biodiversity, and more. This potentially brings much higher value to farmers.
Benefits for Farmers
One of the most attractive features of NACs is that farmers do not bear the upfront costs of establishing the company. IEG supports the capital raising to cover expenses such as legal setup and ecological assessments. Farmers contribute to the ecological value of their land, not cash.
Once established, NACs provide patient capital - long-term investment that matches the slow but steady process of soil regeneration and ecosystem restoration. They can also connect farmers with technical support, for example, in managing forests, improving soil health, or adopting water-saving practices.
Over time, NACs can expand by bringing in new farms and raising additional rounds of financing. For farmers, this means access to resources, support, and a new income stream that rewards them for maintaining and enhancing the health of their land.
If a landowner wishes to leave, they can buy back the rights to their ecosystem services or sell their land and NAC shares to a new buyer. While this process may sound complex, the key idea is that NACs give landowners more substantial financial incentives to continue farming in ways that regenerate natural capital.
Risks and Trade-Offs
Like any new model, NACs come with trade-offs. Farmers give up some individual decision-making power, since governance is shared through the company. A landowner cannot, for example, cut down a forest if this would reduce the NAC's ecological value. Exiting a NAC may also be complicated, as it requires repurchasing shares or finding a buyer willing to take on both the land and the NAC stake.
Another challenge is the valuation of ecosystem services. Putting a price on biodiversity, clean water, or carbon capture is complex, and critics worry about transparency. NACs currently rely on the United Nations' System of Environmental Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) framework, which Fordham University is now advancing as an independent global standard.
There are also ethical concerns. Some argue that nature should not be privatized or turned into financial assets, even if the goal is conservation. In fact, political opposition led to the withdrawal of a proposal to list NACs on the New York Stock Exchange in 2024. For now, they remain at the pilot stage, tested mainly in private markets.
Financing Regenerative Agriculture
For farmers considering regenerative agriculture, financing is often the biggest hurdle. Transitioning usually requires an investment of €2,000 to €5,000 per hectare for things like cover crops, composting systems, fencing, irrigation upgrades, or new machinery [WBCSD, 2022]. Annual operating costs (seeds, labor, compost, and certification) can add another $30,000 to $50,000, depending on farm size.
The payoff, however, comes within three to five years, when reduced chemical inputs and healthier soils start lowering costs and improving yields. Studies have found regenerative farms can achieve profits 15–25% higher than conventional systems over the long term [Ecosystems United, 2023].
This is precisely where NACs could make a difference: by offering long-term financing tied not only to crop yields but also to the ecological health of the land, they can give farmers both the resources and the incentives to make the transition.
A Promising but Complex Path
Natural Asset Companies remain experimental, and many questions remain about their governance, valuation methods, and ethical implications. The bet for this new instrument is that it picks up the interest of large investors, yet that risks causing speculation and price fluctuations. At the same time, for farmers willing to collaborate, NACs could provide a way to unlock new revenue streams, gain access to long-term financing, and ensure that the natural wealth of their land is finally recognized and rewarded.
At their best, NACs could help farmers make regenerative agriculture economically viable and secure the resilience of their land for future generations.
Sources:
- Impact Entrepreneur, Natural Asset Companies (NAC) – A new way to invest in our planet (2022) https://impactentrepreneur.com/natural-asset-companies-nacs/
- International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Addressing the Nature Financing Gap: the role of natural capital accounting and natural asset companies (2013) https://www.iisd.org/articles/insight/addressing-nature-financing-gap
- Intrinsic Exchange Group, How NACs value nature (2025) https://www.intrinsicexchange.com/hownacsvaluenature
- Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), What's the Deal with NACs? (2024) https://www.perc.org/2024/07/29/whats-the-deal-with-nacs/
- Wikipedia, Natural Asset Company (2025) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Asset_Company
