Tender: Feasibility Study for a Nutrient Credit Trading Pilot in the River Usk Catchment

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Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority is seeking a consultant to undertake a feasibility study to identify and prioritise nature-based solutions that can unlock planning development while improving water quality in the River Usk and its tributaries, and to inform a basic nutrient credit trading pilot. The study should primarily develop a basic compliance market model and assess the viability of more complex mechanisms such as catchment permitting or voluntary/integrated markets at a later stage, addressing objectives to: identify and prioritise potential supply of nutrient credits; assess and quantify current and future demand; explore place-based influences; understand stakeholder perspectives; recommend alternatives if a nutrient market is unviable; and provide future recommendations and a roadmap. Methodologies must combine qualitative and quantitative approaches, including GIS analysis to geolocate mitigation options, priority reaches, pollution sources and receptors using available datasets, stakeholder and landowner engagement, targeted walkovers to ground-truth findings, a supply-side assessment distinguishing strategic priorities from actionable opportunities and valuation of mitigation credits, and a demand-side assessment that evaluates near- and long-term market viability and possible solutions for an asymmetric market with limited demand.