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Natural capital encompasses the world's living and non-living natural assets. It forms the basis for environmental and economic life through natural resource production and the provision of ecosystem services. Natural resources are the foundation of social and economic development. Given the critical role they play in maintaining biodiversity and enabling green economic growth, safeguarding such assets could not be more pressing.
To incorporate natural capital into national green growth planning, it is critical for decision-makers to have access to information that reflects the quality, quantity and spatial configuration of natural capital assets. The utility of natural capital analysis for policymaking is ultimately dependent on the availability of information, which can be provided through data platforms and tools.
The GGKP’s Natural Capital Expert Group is currently exploring state-of-the-art methods, models, data and tools for mainstreaming natural capital in national green growth policies and practices. The group is leveraging global momentum for green growth in order to better value, protect and enhance natural capital in national economic decision-making.
Created a Post in Climate Change, Natural Capital, Water and Sanitation
Want to lead a regional team of #WASH and #environment specialists at USAID's Bureau for Africa? Apply by 15 August for this Senior Water Advisor position! #Africa #Water
Created an Event in Natural Capital
Created a Post in Blue Economy, Natural Capital
Thriving mangroves are critical to the future of many of the world’s most vulnerable coastal communities. Rich in biodiversity, they serve as nursery grounds for fish and shellfish, while their roots act as a filter for sediment, cleaning up waterways. One of the planet’s most carbon-rich ecosystems, mangroves also provide natural protection from storm surges and flooding, whose severity is being exacerbated by climate change.
Created a Post in Natural Capital
Scientists have typically focused on monitoring how close endangered species are to extinction, regularly updating the severity of the risk on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list, which includes iconic wildlife such as the mountain gorilla and rare flowering plants such as the Bayard’s adder’s-mouth orchid.
Now, a new global standard known as the IUCN green status of species will help provide a richer picture of a species’ conservation status by detailing how close it is to recovering its original population size and health.
The Uttarakhand government recently announced it will initiate valuation of its natural resources in the form of ‘Gross Environment Product’ (GEP).
Scottish Water Turning to Ecosystem-based Mitigation
Created a Post in Climate Change, Natural Capital
To support states’ technical needs in building and implementing climate action plans — including by developing robust GHG inventories — the U.S. Climate Alliance has convened an “Impact Partnership” of nonprofit organizations with relevant expertise. Through that partnership, a guide for states has been published to develop and improve their GHG inventories with an eye toward one particular sector that has often been shortchanged: natural and working lands (NWL). But to understand why a state-level guide specific to land-based GHG inventories is needed, it’s important to first know what a GHG inventory is, why inventories are produced and how they are created.
Created an Opportunity in Natural Capital
Created a Post in Cities and Urban Development, Climate Change, Natural Capital
Explore transformational potential and best practices of nature based-solutions (NbS) from cities around the world in this new UNEP G20 report. Share your municipal initiatives for NbS here!
Carbon “sinks”, such as forests or the ocean, play a crucial role in absorbing atmospheric CO2 and thereby reducing the damages caused by climate change and the emissions that drive it.
Dr. Wilfried Rickels and Prof. Martin Quaas's findings show that Australia, Indonesia and Cuba contribute the largest blue-carbon net “wealth” to the rest of the world. However, only a handful of countries have enough blue carbon potential to offset their entire carbon footprint.