An ambitious new online
resource has been launched today (22 January) by the
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to
help ensure better environmental decision-making by valuing our
‘natural capital’.
For the first time, a comprehensive and integrated set of
evidence and guidance about UK natural capital is now accessible
from one place. It is intended to help policy makers, businesses,
landowners and public sector organisations make better planning
decisions in order to protect and to boost natural capital.
‘Natural capital’ is the sum of our ecosystems, providing us with
food, clean air and water, wildlife, energy, wood, recreation and
protection from hazards. The natural capital approach will make
it easier for public and private organisations to better assess
and value the environment. This will help deliver benefits
including long-term flood risk reduction, boosts to wildlife,
improvements to water and air quality, and opportunities for
biodiversity net gain.
The value of the environment and natural capital is routinely
understated. For example, the Office for National
Statistics estimate that England’s woods and forests
deliver a value of services estimated at £2.3 billion annually.
Of this figure, only a small proportion – 10% – is in timber
values. The rest of the value derives from other more ‘hidden’
benefits to society, such as human recreation and air pollution
removal, which improve health, and carbon sequestration which can
help combat climate change.
Environment Minister said:
Today’s publication helps to put the natural environment at the
heart of decision-making. It meets a commitment from our 25
Year Environment Plan to better incorporate the value of nature
– known as natural capital – and the benefits the environment
provides to us all.
This comes at a critical time where the protection of our
environment is ever-more important in combatting climate change
and reversing habitat loss.
The ‘Enabling a Natural Capital Approach’ (ENCA) project delivers
on a commitment in the government’s 25 Year
Environment Plan. The resource was developed in collaboration
with experts from across Defra and its agencies and informed by
the work of academic, professional and voluntary bodies such as
the Valuing Nature Network, to ensure the best available evidence
is included in a user-friendly way. Today’s move will also help
support the delivery of Nature Recovery Networks -
part of the government’s landmark Environment Bill.
Matthew Farrow, Executive Director of the Environmental
Industries Commission (EIC) said:
Business has a vital role in delivering natural capital
improvements across our communities and countryside. To do so
it needs to adopt best practice and make decisions based on a
consistent understanding of the available tools, resources and
datasets.
In bringing together all the relevant resources in one place,
ENCA will make a huge difference to the ability of businesses
and their advisers to assess how their actions and investment
decisions can be aligned with protecting and enhancing the
natural environment on which we all rely. EIC is delighted to
have provided member cases studies for ENCA and looks forward
to promoting it.
Professor Ian J. Bateman, Director of Land, Environment,
Economics and Policy Institute (LEEP) University of Exeter said:
Ensuring that natural capital is embedded at the core of policy
and decision-making is now key to government policy as seen
with the HM Treasury Green Book guidelines for appraising
public spending, the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan and
as recently as the Green Finance Strategy.
Yet information and guidance on how to implement the natural
capital approach to decision making at the practical level is
at best fragmented. There is a clear need for central
government leadership on this. I and other academic colleagues
believe Defra’s ENCA will provide what is needed and we look
forward to its arrival.
ENCA builds directly on HM Treasury’s ‘Green Book’ guidance - a
standard to which government policies and projects must be
measured against, so that government departments fully take
account of the natural environment in policy design and
publically funded projects.
This meets the recommendation of the Natural Capital
Committee’s Annual Report (2019) to have robust values
and resources when assessing environmental impacts.
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Natural capital is the
sum of our ecosystems, species, freshwater, land, soils,
minerals, our air and our seas. These are all elements of
nature that either directly or indirectly bring value to
people and the country at large. They do this in many ways
but chiefly by providing us with food, clean air and water,
wildlife, energy, wood, recreation and protection from
hazards.
