The Scottish Wildlife Trust's recent publication, 50 for the Future, lists 50 things that the Trust believes should happen in Scotland over the next 50 years to benefit both people and wildlife. In the following article I discuss Number 47: 'Ensure the value of Scotland's natural capital is properly accounted for in economic decision making'

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At the end of November 2015, just days before the Paris climate summit, some 600 delegates from 45 countries gathered in Edinburgh for the second World Forum on Natural Capital, organised by the Scottish Wildlife Trust in association with several international partners including the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on whose governing Council I'm honoured to sit as an elected Councillor.

The Patron of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, HRH Prince Charles recorded a video message for the event, urging governments and businesses to account for the value of natural capital in decision making. You can read the BBC’s account of it here.

But if you’re wondering what natural capital is all about you’re not alone.

Here, in five bite-size pieces, is an introduction to natural capital, along with an explanation of why the Scottish Wildlife Trust thinks it’s so important.

1. What is natural capital?

Natural capital can be defined as the world’s stocks of natural assets which include geology, soil, air, water and all living things. It is from this natural capital that humans derive a wide range of services, often called ecosystem services, which make human life possible. 

Natural capital is not a new idea. But increasing pressure on our planet’s resources has led to greatly increased interest in the last few years. It’s now a rapidly evolving concept that looks at the economic costs of damaging our natural environment and the economic benefits of protecting and restoring it.

To help people understand the concept of natural capital in practice, we created an infographic in 2013 - called Can’t see the trees for the wood?. It shows that in traditional measurements of a country’s wealth using metrics such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) a tree is more valuable when it is chopped down than when it is left standing. Natural capital thinking turns that on its head by showing the economic and social benefits of leaving the tree standing, for example in relation to carbon capture and storage, flood protection and improved air quality.

At the inaugural World Forum on Natural Capital, we also showed the delegates a short animation, made by Professor Iain Woodhouse of Edinburgh University and his (then) 13-year-old son, called The Super-duper-solar-powered-everything-machine, along with a short film called Pitch for Nature, made by our international partners the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, which explains why natural capital is something businesses should take seriously. 

2. Why is the Scottish Wildlife Trust engaging in the natural capital debate?

Nature is our life support system but is under unprecedented threat and pressure from human activity. It is estimated that the global species extinction rate is currently 1,000 times the background rate as calculated from the fossil record. For many years, we’ve been making the moral and ecological case for protecting nature – with some important successes. But we need to do more. 

With financial capital, when we spend too much we run up debt. If it’s not tackled, this can result in bankruptcy. The same applies to our natural capital. If we keep depleting our stocks of natural capital without allowing nature to recover then the consequences for both nature and humanity will be catastrophic. 

The Scottish Wildlife Trust has a long history of bringing together diverse interests with the aim of protecting our natural environment. Being pioneering and inclusive are two of our core values.  

Using natural capital arguments, we can make an economic case for protecting and restoring our natural environment by demonstrating that destroying it is not only bad for the natural world we hold so dear – it’s also bad for our economy and society at large.

Everyone, from regulators and policymakers, to business leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, scientists, educators, NGO leaders and ordinary citizens need to be part of the solution.

3. When is a natural capital approach useful?

Needless to say, no number can ever represent the true value of nature. Nature’s intrinsic value is far beyond monetary valuation. But all too often, nature’s value is invisible in economic decision making. Land is sold for development, pressure on land is intensified due to agriculture and other land uses, our seas are overfished. But this narrow short-termism is building up long-term economic and ecological problems. 

Natural capital valuations and investments take a longer term perspective and are gaining serious momentum because of the urgency we face in needing to address multiple global crisis including biodiversity loss, climate change, food security and water scarcity. Natural capital approaches must complement existing legislative mechanisms designed to protect species, habitats and special places for nature. It’s also vital that we continue to provide opportunities that inspire people to re-connect with nature so that the next generation will instinctively cherish it. 

Natural capital approaches, if communicated well, can also re-inforce moral arguments for the protection nature, using clear metrics and numbers to show there is also a social and economic imperatives for sound environmental stewardship. 

4. Who else is calling for natural capital approaches?

In November 2015 alone, the Bank of England and the White House both publicly recognised the need to move environmental protection up the priority list in order to prevent continued value destruction. 

A significant number of leading organisations have been working in this area for many years. Conservation organisations such as WWF, Conservation International, the David Suzuki Foundation and many more are actively engaged in moving the natural capital approach forward for the benefit of nature. 

Last month, Fauna and Flora International published a new collaborative paper, with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and KPMG, showing that accountants have a role to play in conserving our natural world and that many are already taking part.

And in the foreword to a publication from the WWF Heart of Borneo Global Initiative, Sir David Attenborough has said that: “Forests are natural capital that we can ill afford to squander, yet we don’t know the true value of what we have in our ‘natural bank’. Conventional national accounts give us GDP and other measures, but they fail to measure things that are not paid for in cash, no matter how valuable they are and no matter what the monetary costs would be if we had to replace them.”

The World Forum on Natural Capital is itself, of course, a huge collaborative effort. In 2015, we worked again with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Natural Capital Coalition.

5. How is the Scottish Wildlife Trust turning ideas into action?

On the ground, our three pioneering Living Landscape Programmes; Coigach–Assynt, Edinburgh and Cumbernauld, already take an integrated social, economic and environmental approach to protecting and rebuilding nature. Natural capital approaches enable us to value our urban greenspaces, peatlands, marine ecosystems, woodlands and freshwater systems in a way which helps us make more informed decisions for nature and our own prosperity and wellbeing. We are also engaging new audiences, including what might be called 'the unconverted' who don't necessarily see the world through a green lens.

Back in 2013, at the inaugural World Forum on Natural Capital, we also launched the Scottish Forum on Natural Capital. You can read more about the Scottish Forum on Natural Capital on its website, where you can also find another infographic on whisky and natural capital called What’s in a dram?.

The Scottish Forum brings together organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors to help protect and rebuild Scotland’s natural capital. As the concept represents a completely new way of thinking, we are at an early stage in this journey but the promise is enormous.

Together with our Scottish Forum partners, we have identified some clear steps that we need to take if we are to change our relationship with the natural world. The World Forum has already helped increase awareness and understanding. We now need the help of our growing number of partners and supporters to move this forward to action. 

Let us know your thoughts by emailing thefuture@scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk or Tweet @ScotWidlife using #50fortheFuture.