Natural Capital Initiative

We all have an intrinsic understanding that an economic value can be put on the environment. A flat in Brighton with a sea view will be more expensive than one three streets back. A house with a view of the beech woods in Buckinghamshire will command a higher price than one overlooking a gravel pit. We often identify the cost of mopping up the environmental damage perpetrated by an oil spillage on our coast, but does the Government keep a tally in its asset register of the value of the ecosystem for which it is responsible? What steps do we take to ensure that this increases year on year rather than being eroded? A recent WWF report states that the world’s wetlands are worth US $70 billion annually because they are important for controlling flooding, filtering water and as recreation amenities. Yet the UK has lost half of its wetlands. We are now beginning to see the value of creating a viable market for carbon to help reduce emissions and tackle climate change. It is time we do so for those services our natural environment provides for which no market value exists, before it is too late.

Demands on our ecosystems and the services they provide are rocketing. With a growing population to sustain and increasing demand for water, food and energy, today’s world is facing problems of an unprecedented scale. The world has been rocked by the scale of the current financial crisis – the ecological crisis posed by depletion of our natural capital will have more far-reaching and devastating consequences. To highlight this issue the Natural Capital Initiative (NCI) – a partnership of the Society of Biology, the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology, and the British Ecological Society - has been created.

Natural capital is vital to our social and economic well-being. Human well-being depends on healthy, functioning ecosystems because of the range of services they provide: food, fresh water, timber, clean air, soil formation, climate regulation, as well as the cultural and aesthetic enjoyment we derive from nature. Over time, human activity has changed ecosystems to derive social and economic benefit. However, this has not always been sustainable or for the benefit of all mankind, and there have been unintended consequences on ecosystem health.

The NCI proposes that to ensure the health and prosperity of future generations, we must reconsider how to feed and sustain a growing population whilst safe-guarding ecosystems and the services they provide.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment reported on the consequences of ecosystem change on human well-being. The report urges a more sustainable approach to human social and economic development, and promotes the use of an ‘ecosystem approach’ as a guiding framework to achieve this. The ‘ecosystem approach’ is defined as a holistic strategy for the integrated management of land, water and biodiversity to promote conservation and sustainable, equitable development practices. This approach inextricably links human well-being with the health of ecosystems ensuring that development today does not compromise the needs of future generations and is receiving growing support from governments and international organisations alike.

An important question we face today is how to make the ecosystem approach operational? NCI will work to achieve this through identifying gaps in current research, policy and its implementation. By engaging with policy-makers, industry, and different research disciplines (including environment, economics, humanities, health and psychology), the initiative will help link research and policy to develop further understanding around the management and valuation of ecosystem services. The initiative will also create opportunities for constructive debate on the benefits and trade-offs in implementing the ecosystem approach that will be broadened to include public and private sectors. 

The aims of NCI fit well with a number of government objectives, notably the recent cross-government priority (laid out in the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007) to ‘Secure a healthy natural environment for today and the future’. NCI activities and outputs will also feed into a new ten year programme – Living with Environmental Change (LWEC). The LWEC programme is run by a partnership of government departments and related agencies and research councils UK. It will provide the evidence required by decision-makers to manage effectively and protect vital ecosystem services to mitigate the economic impact of environmental change.

The first major activity of NCI was a three-day multi-stakeholder symposium from 29 April to 1 May 2009 in London. This explored mechanisms for assigning value to the services provided by ecosystems to inform decision-making in the face of often conflicting economic and social demands on our natural capital. The discussions from workshops generated some clear messages, which were synthesised into a report (available on the NCI website).

This was followed in June 2009 by a public discussion on ‘Sustainable Cities’. Organised in conjunction with the Science Council and the British Library, the event brought together researchers, planners and members of the public to discuss what ‘greening’ a city like London might mean in practice. Further public engagement activities have included steering group members Prof Paul Leonard speaking on behalf of the NCI as part of an Earthwatch debate, and Prof Rosie Hails leading a discussion on the role of GM technology in global food security in the British Library’s TalkScience series. In addition to these events, the NCI is assisting with the groundbreaking UK National Ecosystem Assessment. This review of the state and trends of the nation’s natural capital will inform public policy into the future and assist in the accounting of ecosystem services in decision-making.