The Natural Capital Project pioneers
science, technology, and partnerships that
enable nature and people to thrive.
Centered at Stanford University, Nat Cap
drives innovation across disciplines,
engaging with experts across all the
seven schools here and around the world.
In our work, Natural Capital refers to
Earth's land, waters, and their
biodiversity. Basically the machinery of
nature that keeps this planet habitable
and provides all the basic ingredients
of human wellbeing.
Makes our lives possible and fulfilling.
Most people focus around climate change,
but climate change is only the tip of the iceberg.
We're destroying the
diversity of life on Earth, we're changing
biogeochemical cycles, we're putting
plastic into the oceans-- on and on and on.
So the Natural Capital Project is really
a unique organization of being able to
bridge both--the key thing here is
science and practice. So if you just
wanted to do things in terms of science,
academia is probably the place to do that.
If you just want to do things in terms of
practice, there are many organizations
like TNC and WWF that have on-the-ground
actions and practitioners. But it's this
bridging, being able to take the best
science and then being able to take this
out and communicate it to communities so
that we get changes in action so that
ultimately we do things which are best
for nature and people.
The first question Natural Capital
science needs to address to inform
leaders in driving open these new
pathways for green inclusive growth is
where to invest? How much and where
should we protect? What elements of
nature are crucial to bring into the
future with us? And what elements really
need restoration in order to bolster the
suite of benefits that humanity relies
on for health, for water security, for
climate security, for food security, and
everything else.
The second key question is, you know, what
sorts of policy and finance mechanisms
will incentivize that investment? Enable
investment in forest restoration or
wetland restoration and protection. Same
on mangroves, coral reefs in ocean
systems. We all know that we've driven
Natural Capital to an all-time low just
at a time when human numbers and our
aspirations and impacts are at an
all-time high. So it's clear we need to
restore natural capital, it's clear we
need to be really smart and efficient
about it--targeting investments in the
people and places and in the types of
new economic systems that will open this
pathway for green and inclusive types of growth.
So right now I think that the
ways that governments and investors and
businesses make decisions, doesn't
capture the connection between nature
and people, and NatCap's work makes
what's previously been invisible visible
to those decision-makers in new ways.
We're going to achieve the future that
we're all hoping for. A world in which
nature and people thrive, a world in
which in an inclusive way we drive open
green pathways of development. We
absolutely need to know
what the assets are. What the basic
Natural Capital assets are that generate
all of the well-being upon which we
fundamentally depend.
