THE NATURAL CAPITAL PROJECT
Aligning Economic Forces with Conservation
•Despite its importance, natural capital
is poorly understood, scarcely
monitored, and—in many places—
undergoing rapid degradation.
•Often the value of ecosystem services
is widely appreciated only upon their
loss.
Natural Capital Project site, North Shore Oahu, Hawaii
•As a result, natural capital is typically undervalued in land-use plans, policy
decisions, and investments, if it is considered at all.
•New scientific methods, new governmental policies, and new financial
instruments are needed.
•Combining the strengths of a leading research university and two of the
world’s most experienced and effective conservation organizations, we are
simultaneously developing new tools, applying them with partners on the
ground, and magnifying our impact.
InVEST: “Integrated Valuation of
Ecosystem Services & Tradeoffs”
Our first scientific tool is a software system that supports strategic
investment, land use, and conservation decisions.
•InVEST models and maps the delivery, distribution, and economic value of
ecosystem services and biodiversity.
•InVEST requires basic data about the landscape, management practices,
infrastructure, governance, and some data specific to each service.
InVEST can model and map:
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Aesthetic quality
Agricultural Production
Aquaculture
Biodiversity
Carbon Storage
Coastal Protection
Coastal Vulnerability
Crop Pollination
Cultural Resources
Flood Mitigation
Non-Timber Forest Products
(NTFPs)
Water Supply
Water Quality
Timber Production
Recreation
STAGING
•If properly managed, Earth’s natural
capital yields a flow of vital “ecosystem
services.”
MODELING
We are working for a future in which natural systems are understood and
conserved throughout the world for both their intrinsic values and their
economic contributions to human well-being.
Our Approach: Scenarios & Choices
REPORTING
Our Partnership & Our Vision
Results: Test-run in the Willamette Basin
Stakeholder Engagement
Scenarios
(Land Management, Climate, Population)
Models
Provisioning
Regulating
Habitats
Agriculture
Carbon
Sequestration
Species
Drinking
Water
Biodiversity
Flood
Mitigation
Cultural
Supporting
Recreation
Pollination
Tradition
Erosion
Control
Outputs ~ Biophysical Economic Cultural
Maps
Tradeoff
Curves
Balance
Sheets
•Identify critical choices that decision-makers or stakeholders face such as
new land-use management, new government policies, or climate change.
•Assess the amount and value of services provided under each scenario.
•Maps help identify areas most important for the production of services
and inform policies for the greatest return on investment in natural capital.
•Trade-off curves can help minimize conflict among sectors and potentially
maximize benefit from land-uses for both people and the environment.
•Balance sheets reveal the trade offs and synergies among all services for
the whole area in one simple table.
Keeping It Simple: Tiered Data
Requirements Enable Worldwide Use
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Modeling reality
Simple
Complex
Data reality
Relative
Scores
Services &
$ Values
Services &
$ Values
•Tier 1 models for each service are simple, can be used with globally
available data, and report relative service levels.
•Tier 2 and higher-level models require more detailed data and report
actual service production levels and economic values.
For more information, contact The Natural Capital Project: Liz Rauer, Communications Manager, [email protected], or call 650.724.3108.
Some areas provide higher levels of services than others.
•The agriculture and timber maps show dollar values—high profit (black) to
intermediate profit (green) to no profit (gray).
•The other services show relative scores—high levels of water quality
control (light pink), flood control (light purple), biodiversity (dark brown),
and carbon sequestration (dark green).
Bundling shows where multiples services are produced.
•The bundled services map shows all services summed with equal weight to
highlight the areas that produce multiple services (red).
•When some services are more important to society than others, they can
be given more weight when “bundling.”
Decision-makers can see how much will be gained and lost, who will
benefit, and who will pay the price.
•The “more timber harvest”
map shows the production
of the same bundle of services
under a potential timber
harvest plan developed by
local stakeholders.
•The “change” map shows
which areas produce more
(red) or less (blue) services
after the timber harvest.