Tools
Tools
Day, Brett, Mancini, Mattia, Bateman, Ian J., Binner, Amy, Cho, Frankie, de Gol, Anthony, Ferguson-Gow, Henry, Fezzi, Carlo, Lee, Christopher, Liuzzo, Lorena, Lovett, Andrew 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0554-9273, Owen, Nathan, Pearson, Richard G. and Smith, Greg
(2024)
Natural capital approaches for the optimal design of policies for nature recovery.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 379 (1903).
ISSN 0962-8436
Preview |
PDF (day-et-al-2024-natural-capital-approaches-for-the-optimal-design-of-policies-for-nature-recovery)
- Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (424kB) | Preview |
Abstract
By embedding a spatially explicit ecosystem services modelling tool within a policy simulator we examine the insights that natural capital analysis can bring to the design of policies for nature recovery. Our study is illustrated through a case example of policies incentivising the establishment of new natural habitat in England. We find that a policy mirroring the current practice of offering payments per hectare of habitat creation fails to break even, delivering less value in improved flows of ecosystem services than public money spent and only 26% of that which is theoretically achievable. Using optimization methods, we discover that progressively more efficient outcomes are delivered by policies that optimally price activities (34%), quantities of environmental change (55%) and ecosystem service value flows (81%). Further, we show that additionally attaining targets for unmonetized ecosystem services (in our case, biodiversity) demands trade-offs in delivery of monetized services. For some policy instruments it is not even possible to achieve the targets. Finally, we establish that extending policy instruments to offer payments for unmonetized services delivers target-achieving and value-maximizing policy designs. Our findings reveal that policy design is of first-order importance in determining the efficiency and efficacy of programmes pursuing nature recovery. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bringing nature into decision-making’.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Funding Information: This research in this paper has been supported by the NetZeroPlus (NZ+) grant funded by BBSRC (grant no. BB/V011588/1), the UK Energy Research Centre Project funded by EPSRC (grant no. EP/S029575/1), the Addressing the Valuation of Energy and Nature Together (ADVENT) project funded by NERC (grant no. NE/M019640/1) and the ADVANCES (ADVancing Analysis of Natural Capital in LandscapE DecisionS) project funded by NERC (grant no. NE/T002115/1). RGP and HF-G were also funded by the Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems program supported by the Wellcome Trust\u2019s Our Planet, Our Health program (grant no. 205200/Z/16/Z). Data availability: UK species occurrence records were provided by the Biological Records Centre based on data collated from the recording schemes and societies listed in [71]. The work of the Biological Records Centre is supported by the Natural Environment Research Council award number NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCAPE programme delivering National Capability. European species occurrence records were obtained from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and occurrence records for bumblebees in Europe were provided by P. Rasmont and the STEP (Status and Trends of European Pollinators) project. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | economics,ecosystem services,natural capital modelling,nature recovery,valuation,biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology(all),agricultural and biological sciences(all) ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1300 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Social Sciences Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 20 Aug 2024 14:30 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Nov 2024 00:52 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/96286 |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rstb.2022.0327 |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |