Warren Parker: The importance of natural capital
Warren Parker
New Zealand’s social, cultural and economic wellbeing is inextricably tied to the state of its environment. This dependency spawned the term ‘natural capital’, which in its simplest form compares natural resources and ecological processes to ‘money in the bank’.
Natural capital is the irreplaceable biotic and abiotic components and processes that underwrite our way of life, many of our cultural aspirations, and the key industries and services upon which our economy is based.
Natural resources have biological limits – either because they are finite (i.e. non–renewable such as fossil oil and land) or because the biological processes for their renewal such as reproduction and growth restrict their rate of replenishment (e.g. fish, timber).
Nature also provides ecosystem services; a forest, in addition to wood fibre provides water storage and habitat and helps in the regulation of the atmosphere and climate.
Depletion of our natural capital reduces options for future generations, and threatens the sustainability of our national character, quality of life and wellbeing.
Given the importance of natural capital to New Zealand’s future, it is imperative that we have the ability to:
- Identify many of key components of natural capital and understand the inherent processes in order to monitor their state and resilience
- Understand current pressures and potential threats such as invasive species and climate change
- Develop mitigation strategies and technologies
- Recognise opportunities for integrated economic, environmental, social and cultural development
- Ensure the development and uptake of effective stewardship that preserves our natural capital for future generations.
The term natural capital emerged during the 1990’s and was extended through books such as Natural Capitalis (1999) and Capitalism as if the World Matters (2005).
A range of market–based instruments for ecosystem services – such as for carbon, water and nutrients – have been established to encourage better use and care of natural resources. This trend is set to accelerate.
New Zealanders until recently have enjoyed a relative abundance of natural resources and only modest restrictions have been applied to their use. Fishing quotas, introduced with much consternation in October 1986 were an early and world–leading attempt to manage New Zealand fisheries at a sustainable level. We now recognise the wisdom in this, even with still incomplete information about the dynamics of marine populations and the multiplicity of factors that influence these over time.
We see more vividly problems of over allocation of water and the pressures of urban expansion on our, often highest quality, land. Constraining resource–use where previously only light or no regulation applied is contentious; reducing or reallocating the use of natural resources from those who first secured a right to their use to a higher value and/or more sustainable uses is typically fraught with legal challenge and vitriolic debate.
Despite these difficulties most people appreciate that continuing to manage our natural capital as we are now is neither equitable to future generations nor a sensible way to support a vibrant economy in the long run. Not surprisingly, industries dependent on natural resources increasingly appreciate that their “license to operate” with the wider public and the prices they receive from the market are dependent on the effective stewardship of all of the assets under their care.
These are some of the reasons why natural capital is central to the science undertaken at Landcare Research. The concept of natural capital builds a bridge between the environment, economy and community. It shapes our vision, “Innovative science for a sustainable future” and enjoins us to build strong links with business and communities.
Effective stewardship of natural resources in the context of a modern, export–orientated economy requires an excellent understanding of how ecosystems work and how they respond to different policy instruments and management practices – all areas where we have world–leading science.
Balancing the conflicting demands of growth necessary to maintain an economy that provides a standard of living that makes New Zealand a most attractive place to live and work is very challenging. For that reason we continuously seek fresh ways to bring our best scientific talent together with those in the government and business sectors to find fresh solutions to, often old, problems.