Measuring and monitoring natural capital

Stewart Clarke Natural England & Natural Capital Committee Secretariat

Outline

• What is natural capital and why does it matter?

• The Natural Capital Committee

• Measuring and monitoring natural capital

• Data gaps and recommendations

Defining Natural Capital

Natural Capital : the stock of our physical natural assets (such as soil, forests, water and biodiversity) which provide flows of services that benefit people (such as pollinating crops, natural hazard protection, climate regulation or the mental health benefits of a walk in the park) (Natural Environment White Paper, 2011)

http://www.forumforthefuture.org/project/five-capitals/overview#sthash.Xmo2hc70.dpuf

1) produced or manufactured capital (roads, buildings, machines)

2) human capital (health, knowledge, culture and institutions)

3) natural capital (available from nature)

timber

drugs

clean water

aesthetics

shelter

capital stock of soil and trees flows from stock benefits or services

Stocks and flows

The problem: state of natural capital stocksThere is a growing body of evidence to suggest that natural capital stocks have been and continue to be degraded:

MEA 2005: Nearly two thirds of the services provided by nature to humankind are in decline worldwide. ‘In effect, the benefits reaped from our engineering of the planet have been achieved by running down natural capital assets’

UK National Ecosystem Assessment concluded that although UK ecosystems are currently delivering some services well, others are in long-term decline

What has the NCC been set up to do?

NCCIndependent Advisory Body to

Government

Provide advice on when, where and

how natural assets are being used unsustainably

Advise the Government on how it should

prioritise action to protect and improve

natural capital, so that public and private activity

is focused where it will have greatest impact on improving wellbeing in

our society.

Advise the Government on

research priorities to improve future

advice and decisions on protecting and enhancing natural

capital.

1

2

3

AUDIENCE: Senior ministers and civil servants, reports to Economic Affairs Committee of the Cabinet

Who is on the Committee?

Dieter Helm(Chair)

Giles Atkinson

Georgina Mace

Kerry ten Kate

Ian Bateman

Rosie Hails

Colin Mayer

Robin Smale

NCC Secretariat

7

Outputs and timeline...

May 12 Jan 13 Jan 14 Jan 15

First State of Natural Capitalreport to EAC

Third State of Natural Capitalreport to EAC

Advice to SoS on valuing

non-market benefits from

woodlands

Advice to SoS on CAP

reform

Advice to SoS on CAP reform

Advice to SoS on biodiversity

offsets

Working paper: metrics for

natural capital

Research Priorities

advice

Research report on metrics and

risk register

Working paper: economic growth?

Case studies on corporate

accounting

Advice to SoS on Habs Regs

review

8

Second State of Natural

Capitalreport to EAC

An illustration – Lower Yangtze Basin

(Dearing et al., 2012) RS = Regulating services index – biodiversity, sediment regulation, soil stability, sediment quality, water quality, air quality

NaturalAssets

SpeciesEcological Communities

SoilsFreshwater

LandAtmosphere

MineralsSub-soil Assets

CoastsOceans

Maj

or la

nd-u

se c

ateg

orie

s (N

EA B

road

Hab

itat

Type

s)

Ecos

yste

m S

ervi

ces

GoodsFood

Fibre (inc. Timber)Energy

Clean waterClean air

RecreationAesthetics

Hazard protection

WildlifeEquable climate

Bene

fits

(Val

ues)

Other capital inputs

Ideally we need metrics linking assets directly to changes in goods and benefits

but data gaps on status of assets are significant. No metrics exist.

Dispersed, interconnected

& dynamic

BenefitValue

(£)

TargetThreshold Safe Limit

Natural asset condition

BenefitValue

(£)

time

Target

Threshold

Safe limit

Reference level

Thresholds, targets and limits

Tracking natural capital changes

Data on natural capital Asset Composite

Indicator Data Quality England Biodiversity Indicators –Trend1

(Indicator Reference No. in brackets)

Species A

BAP Species (4a) EU Protected Species(4b) () () () Farmland (5) () () () Woodland (5) () () Wetlands (5) () () Marine (5) () Invasives (20)

Ecological communities

() A Protected Areas (1) EU Protected Habitats(2b) () Invasives (20)

Soils A n/a

Land () A n/a

Minerals and sub-soil assets

() A n/a

Freshwater A/G Water quality (21)

Coasts () A n/a

Oceans2 A/R Fisheries (23) Invasives (20) Pollution (19)

Atmosphere3 A Sulphur deposition (19) Nitrogen deposition (19)

Key Composite Indicator: good data and composite indicator appropriate for purpose; () some data appropriate for purpose and potential indicator available; no composite indicator and data insufficient to determine status and trends across all components Data quality: Indicative assessment of state of knowledge for natural asset: Red = limited suitable data, Amber = some data, inconsistently collected across components, time or space, Green = good data at appropriate spatial or temporal scales England Biodiversity Indicators: upward trend (improving); downward trend (deteriorating); no real change; multiple arrows indicate multiple indicators for the asset/pressure. Indicator reference number in brackets.

1 Indicates current trend in state of natural capital asset as defined by each indicator, for example, all three invasive

species indicators suggest increasing impacts upon the species asset. 2 Note that due to the challenges of data collection in the marine environment our understanding, whilst improving all the

time, is some way behind that for terrestrial assets. Whilst some components are well monitored others are not. Charting Progress 2 is a comprehensive report on the state of the UK seas based on available data and gives a current overview of status http://chartingprogress.defra.gov.uk/

3 There are good data for some aspects of air quality (for example, in urban environments) and long records for gas composition of the atmosphere (CO2).

UK Species Data

Key: Red – limited suitable data; Amber – data inconsistently collected across components, time or space; Green – good data at appropriate spatial or temporal scales

Species Group Abundance Distribution Trend Te

rres

tria

l & F

resh

wat

er

Microorganisms Fungi Algae Lichens Bryophytes Higher plants Invertebrates (freshwater) Invertebrates (terrestrial)1 Fish (freshwater) Amphibians Reptiles Birds Mammals

Mar

ine

Plankton (phyto- and zoo- )2 Algae Invertebrates Fish3 Seabirds Mammals

1 Some terrestrial invertebrate groups are well monitored e.g. butterflies and moths 2 The Continuous Plankton Recorder data has been regularly collected since the 1930s hence some aspects are

very well monitored 3 Commercial fish species are well understood, non-commercial species less so

Current status of natural assets

Summary of findingsAsset Significant monitoring issues or data gapsSpecies Current focus is on rare species or certain groups. Uncharismatic and difficult to

identify taxa are currently underrepresented (many of these are important for key ecological processes).

Ecological communities

Current focus is on habitats which may be a good proxy for the structural components of ecological communities but our understanding of the link to processes and interactions is less well developed.

Soils Currently no systematic soil survey across the UK. Data on soil depth limited and biological elements poorly represented.

Land Monitoring is confounded by poor definition and delineation of this asset. Some aspects may combine elements of built capital (landscape).

Minerals and sub-soil assets

As non-renewable assets a different approach is required to determine status. Current data are for production volumes and estimates of the size of asset base.

Freshwater Small water-bodies (ponds, lakes, ditches and headwaters) are currently underrepresented in the current monitoring network.

Coasts Current monitoring focuses on the aquatic elements of the coastal system, habitat data provides some information on more terrestrial components but has limitations (see ecological communities).

Oceans Large areas of sea-bed are unmapped. Atmosphere Current emphasis is on monitoring air pollution i.e. impact upon the asset rather than

overall status.

Aggregation and Composite Indicators

• Reporting on status and trend can be complex – we need simple records of change

• Need to be able to aggregate assets and components of assets • Composite metric: a single measure which combines a range

of condition measures to provide an overall summary of state or condition

• Simple and ideal for communication but can hide problems or trends in specific components

• How do you combine different components? What weights should be applied?

Conclusions

• Long history of data collection in UK – voluntary and statutory • To monitor and make informed decisions about natural capital

may require different types of data• We have enough data to give some indication of status/trend;

for most assets this generally only provides a partial picture• Tendency to measure structural aspects of assets rather than

processes and underlying functions. (Many benefits are driven by those processes)

• In addition to plugging data gaps, we need to be able to aggregate measures for different assets and components to provide an overall status assessment.

AcknowledgementsNatural Capital Committee members (Georgina Mace, Rosie Hails)Julian Harlow (Natural Capital Committee Secretariat) The review of existing data sources was led by Lindsay Maskell (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology); the results of this review can be viewed on the Natural Capital Committee website. www.naturalcapitalcommittee.org