Why investing in our natural capital will makes sense for sustainability, guest blog by Katie-Jo Luxton Director of RSPB Cymru

This was published by the IWA on clickonwales.org today. Join in the debate by giving us you feedback here, or go to clickonwales.org

We are used to thinking of Wales as a green and verdant country, our stunning landscapes, the source of nationalistic pride; but in launching the State of Nature report in Wales in May, wildlife presenter Iolo Williams left us in no doubt of the devastating loss of wildlife in our land. In his passionate and at times angry address[i]. he described from personal experience the nature that has vanished in his lifetime from the places he loves. He appealed to the people of Wales to take urgent steps to restore our wildlife or risk depriving our children and grandchildren of their natural heritage.

Twenty five organisations pooled their respective expertise to put together the first ever State of Nature report – which was termed a “doomsday book” for nature by David Attenborough; and it is a profoundly depressing read. Though there are some notable success stories where individual species and habitats have been brought back from the brink, the overwhelming message of the report is one of loss and degradation of the fabric of our nature. More than 3,000 UK species were assessed and two thirds were declining, a third of these rapidly, and one in ten at risk of extinction in the UK. Fundamentally, we have failed to tackle the underlying drivers and causes of biodiversity loss.

US Senator Gaylord Nelson encapsulated the underpinning role that nature plays to all our social and economic activity, when he said “the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment”. Healthy ecosystems provide a wide range of services that we largely take for granted, from land, fresh air, clean water to nutrient cycling and pollination our daily lives are supported by the environment. New research is revealing just how important a role our natural environment plays in our physical and mental health as well as the shaping our children’s development – their ability to think creatively, concentrate and take good risks. 

 Our known responses will exacerbate the environmental crises we face – from biodiversity loss to climate change. Economist Maynard Keynes had it right when he said that ‘the real difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas, as escaping from the old ones.’ Conventional economic models are predicated on a whole sector of environmental resources being provided for free, meaning the intensive consumption of our natural resources are not considered. This market failure leads to decisions that do not consider the true value of our environment and nature to society – for example a decision on whether land is more valuable as a park or as a car park, is made without the full set of information and nature repeatedly loses out.  A report commissioned for the UK Treasury’s Red Tape Review showed that for every £1 spent on protecting important wildlife sites, ecosystem services worth  £8.60 are delivered to the public. And this value increases if the site is well managed [ii].

Many of us share Iolo’s emotional engagement with nature and feel a moral duty towards our planet and its creatures, but such abstract beliefs have not been adequate to protect our wildlife. To make progress towards halting biodiversity decline, conservationists need more in the tool box besides our passion. Finding ways to value the ‘natural capital’ of our environment is the first step to being able to properly account for it.

Pioneering efforts have been made across the world to put a robust value on biodiversity and understand the true cost of biodiversity decline.

• The National Ecosystem Assessment reviewed the range of services that nature provides and assessed their relative value to humans, beyond the intrinsic.
• The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity estimated the cost of not halting biodiversity loss is 7% of global GDP, by 2050.
• The UN and World Bank have established the Beyond GDP initiative based on developing indicators that are as clear and appealing as GDP, but more inclusive of environmental and social aspects of progress.

These reports help to provide a strong business case for stewardship of nature, and increasingly enlightened business leaders are making this case. The CBI 2012 report acknowledged that green growth [iii] contributed at least a third of all the growth in the British economy in the last two years.  Defra’s Natural Capital Committee and Ecosystem Markets Task identified practical interventions for both Government and business to develop growth that benefits the environment and create new markets for environmental goods and services.

Firstly, we must ensure that policies and incentives no longer actively encourage further degradation of the environment. We must invest public money in restoring our natural capital –for example using CAP subsidies to buy the currently non market environmental goods from farms like stewardship of wildlife, water and carbon soils.  Concurrently, we must work to create new markets and payments for ecosystem services  that will financially reward the providers of these natural resources.

If we can create the markets, then the restoration of our natural environment could generate the economic boost that is so desperately need. The forthcoming Environment and Planning Bills provide the opportunity to put in place the frameworks needed to secure net environmental gain from developments and restore our natural capital.

The real challenge at the heart of sustainable development is how we decouple economic growth from environmental degradation.  If we can do this, then our wildlife will no longer be in decline. To make real progress on our national sustainable development aim, the key next step is to describe what a Welsh economy that operates within environmental limits could look like and we will need best minds from academia, industry, government and civil society to work together. The curlews and cowslips will thank us but so will our grandchildren.

This was published by the IWA on clickonwales.org today. Join in the debate by giving us you feedback here, or go to www.clickonwales.org

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