Valuing the invaluable: how much is the planet worth?

The use of ecological integrity indicators within the natural capital index framework: The ecological and economic value of the remnant natural capital of México

There has been some recent interest in the role that natural capital can play in the transition to a more sustainable hospitality industry. However, little work has been published in the academic literature on the role of natural capital in the hospitality industry and how it can be assessed, and this represents a gap in that literature. With this in mind, this short exploratory paper outlines the origins and definition of natural capital, looks at some of the ways in which the hospitality industry benefits from natural capital, explores the relationship between natural capital and natural asset management, and provides an illustrative cameo case study of how one of the leading companies in the hospitality industry, namely Marriott international, has addressed natural capital in their most recent environmental, social and governance report. The paper concludes that there is, as yet, very limited universal recognition of natural capital as an element of sustainability strategy in the hospitality industry. Indeed, even where it is in evidence, natural capital is still viewed within the idiom of economic growth and the continuing expansion of the hospitality industry. The paper suggests, however, that the adoption and adaptation of asset management practices may provide a more realistic way of assessing and measuring the current and evolving value and condition of natural capital. Keywords: hospitality industry, tourism, natural capital, natural asset management, Marriott International

The National Forests of the United States encompass 192.7 million acres (78 million hectares) of land, which is nearly five percent of the total land area of the nation. These lands are managed by the US Forest Service (USFS) for multiple uses, including extraction of timber, production of fossil fuels and minerals, public recreation, and the preservation of biodiversity, clean air, water, and soils. The USFS is interested in valuing the natural capital within, and the ecosystem services provided by, their lands. This is in part to justify expenditures in a time of limited resources. We used emergy and an environmental accounting approach, to quantify the ecosystem services, the exported environmental goods and information provided by National Forest System (NFS) lands, and the natural capital residing on those lands. Environmental accounting using emergy provides a method to value these flows of services and storages of capital using a common biophysical unit, the solar emjoule and its monetary equivalent the emdollar. We compare emdollar values to economic values gleaned from the literature. In 2005, the ecosystem services provided by USFS lands were equivalent to 197 billion emdollars, and the value of NFS natural capital was 24.3 trillion emdollars. Our evaluation suggests that the Federal Government budget allocation for the NFS ($5.55E+09 in 2005) was well spent, protecting 24.3 trillion emdollars in natural capital and insuring annual ecosystem services totaling 197 billion emdollars. Monetary values for some natural capital and ecosystem services are similar to emergy-derived values (resources like fish, wildlife, water, and firewood extracted from forests), and others are widely different (biodiversity, fossil, and mineral resources). There is large uncertainty associated with computing the environment’s contributions to society whether using emergy or accepted economic techniques; yet, the magnitude of these emergy-derived estimates suggests that even with the uncertainty, the values are significant and monetary expenditures for the Forest Service are justified.

The natural capital of the Colombian Caribbean Basins. Evidence of rapid anthropic transformation

The coastal marine area hosts among the most productive ecosystems in the world, in terms of biomass and species richness. These ecosystems’ natural capital stocks provide essential flows of resources for the environment and human life. The distribution of natural capital (NC) and environmental flows (ENFL) characterizing the coastal marine habitats of Ligurian Sea, a biodiversity hotspot in the Mediterranean region, were assessed to define their current state. The study area was divided into 43 functional spatial sections, defined as “biomarine units”. In each biomarine unit natural capital and environmental flows were estimated using data on benthic and fish biomass. Emergy analysis, a thermodynamics-based methodology that expresses the costs in terms of resources incurred by nature to maintain the ecological processes of the marine coastal habitats, was then applied to assess the natural capital and the environmental flows in biophysical terms (solar emergy joules, sej), and using appropriate conversion factors, in monetary terms (emergy euro, em€). The monetary equivalents facilitate understanding for stakeholders and pave the way for the inclusion of marine resources value in socioeconomic and political contexts. The total value of natural capital for the Ligurian coastal and marine area is 2.11 billion em€, while for environmental flows, it is 1.43 billion em€ a−1. Greater values belong to units included within the boundaries of protected areas, proving the efficiency of the protection measures taken. These values represent a reference point and shall be kept constant to preserve natural capital and to ensure services provisioning at least at the current level. This work identify a method useful to monitor the status of natural capital value and environmental flows along Ligurian coast, which can be helpful to stakeholders and policymakers for better monitoring and management of the area.

Mapping community values for natural capital and ecosystem services

First high-resolution marine natural capital mapping in the coastal waters of Chinese mainland

Spatial aggregation and the value of natural capital

The economic value of ecosystem goods and services: The case of Mogale’s Gate Biodiversity Centre, South Africa

Current efforts to value ecosystem services have contributed little to the valuation of natural capital, suggesting that in practice “nature is capital” primarily serves as a metaphor. We provide a theoretically motivated approach for recovering natural capital prices that expands beyond idealized management to encompass current, likely inefficient, management institutions. Theoretically consistent capital valuation requires adjusting for the net marginal productivity of the natural capital asset and price appreciation. We develop a numerical approach for approximating the value of capital that integrates estimates from ecology and economics. We employ the method to recover credible accounting prices for a pound of Gulf of Mexico reef fish as a capital asset under real-world management conditions. Our approach reveals the interdisciplinarity of natural capital valuation and the importance of understanding the feedbacks between the state of natural capital stocks, human behavior affecting these stocks, and the role of institutions in shaping that feedback.

Embracing green growth can secure strong, stable and sustainable development. Green growth recognises and integrates the value of natural capital into economic decision-making and development planning, which is critical to avoid natural capital depletion, the worst of climate change and social and national security risks (OECD, 2013). This is particularly true for developing countries, because of their dependence on natural assets and acute exposure and vulnerability to environmental risks, ranging from air, water and soil pollution, as well as natural resource scarcity and extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change. A green growth policy framework recognises and aims to address both micro- and macro-level pressures that countries face to grow their economies, while also managing environmental risks. In poorer developing countries, micro-level pressures may include lack of access to basic services such as shelter, fuel, water; while macro-level pressures are threats to stable livelihoods due to...

Green growth: From intention to implementation

This paper presents briefly a holistic approach to reducing flood risks using the nature-based solutions. This approach takes into account not only the reduced risk as the primary goal of flood mitigation, but also involves other goals such as the protection of the environment, human well-being, socio-economic goals etc. The Tamnava River basin is used as a pilot case to demonstrate the methodology of such an approach, resulting from the work within the RECONECT project from the EU Horizon 2020 programme. The paper presents preliminary results for the Tamnava River basin by considering several scenarios for flood mitigation measures and potential benefits from these measures in flood risk reduction and in improved ecosystem services in the basin. The methodology includes monetary valuation of the effects of the proposed flood mitigation measures in terms of the avoided damages, as well as of the secondary benefits from the erosion control by additional afforestation. The latter also provides basis for preliminary valuation of all relevant ecosystem services in the basin, thus indicating the value of the basin's natural capital. Such an evaluation is important for the decision-making process on possible flood mitigation strategies.

This paper describes how Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) can be integrated into economy wide analytical frameworks to enhance evidence based decision making. Examples from applications of the Integrated Environmental Economic Modelling (IEEM) Platform show how explicitly accounting for the contributions of the environment to the economy in economic forecasting can lead to substantially different policy recommendations, overcoming some of the scope limitations of traditional economic performance analysis. Furthermore, the paper describes how NCA can be integrated into more traditional economic performance measurements, such as the System of National Accounts and their indicators such as adjusted Gross Domestic Product and Genuine Savings. Integration of natural capital into economy-wide analytical frameworks leads to better policy uptake of research findings and it empowers policymakers to avoid short-sighted decisions, which, although they can generate short-term economic gain, can have adverse consequences for economic, social, and environmental sustainability in the long run.

Ecological systems can be regarded as natural capital that yields ecosystem services vital for human well-being. The provision of these services strictly depends on the protection of natural capital stocks generating them, highlighting the need for conservation and monitoring actions led by proper assessment methodologies. Among the available methods, the Environmental Accounting Model based on the emergy approach is rapidly gaining popularity in ecological applications. We used such method to assess the natural capital value of Posidonia oceanica meadows, widely recognized the most important ecosystems in the Mediterranean basin, at Italian national spatial scale. The natural capital value of P. oceanica was further weighed by the estimates provided by a Habitat Suitability Model. We observed that the estimated level of habitat suitability played an important role as modifier of the average biophysical value of P. oceanica. Our approach allowed to identify the meadows having the highest stability and over space and time, which we defined as the most valuable in biophysical terms, thus with highest natural capital value. The spatially explicit estimates we provided could support managers and policy-makers to ensure the long-term provision of ecosystem services generated by P. oceanica, enhancing ecosystem management and maritime spatial planning.