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Bringing in participatory approaches to widen the scope of natural capital valuation

Forestry plot at Lochcarron

The Scottish Government’s aspiration is to increase the contribution of natural capital to a broader range of economic and social benefits. This target is embedded in policies. However, the Dasgupta Report [1] and other documents stress that humanity underestimates the value of nature leading to its ‘overconsumption’. Thus, an improved understanding of the mechanisms to capture the values of natural capital is needed, exemplifying the importance of natural capital in relation to climate change [2], spurring the provision of ecosystem services (e.g., of public goods) and/or enhancing the condition of ‘nature’ (e.g., through rewilding [3]).

Natural capital valuation can offer a basis for decision-making and monitoring the effects of policies, and land and resource management decisions. Therefore, this inter- transdisciplinary research was designed to answer the questions of:

  1. What are the gaps in current natural capital valuation?
  2. Which of the dimensions of value would it be helpful to consider?
  3. How could these values be captured, measured, valued to support more robust and end-user friendly participatory planning, knowledge transfer and decision-making systems?

We are working in a participatory environment where stakeholder engagement, brand-new technology, and advanced scientific methodology are brought together. We believe that the proposed integration of methods and their use of in a socially innovative milieu, with a framework and new knowledge to be co-constructed with end-users (along with other benefits) will enable:

  1. Wider incorporation of inputs from end-users into natural capital valuation (with added value of spatial analysis on factors, which support the interpretation of ecosystem services context in space, and of their changes through time);
  2. To encounter trade-offs among values held by different groups of stakeholders and different individuals;
  3. To consider other trade-offs, complexities and uncertainties that are not yet captured in decision-making [4]; and
  4. Offer more inclusive, comprehensive, and impartial insights into the social value of ecosystem services that humans derive from natural capital (e.g., of Scottish woodlands). We anticipate that widening of the scope of natural capital valuation by bringing in participatory approaches will create pathways to societal impacts by providing opportunities to embed natural capital thinking into real world situations.

Staff involved and key contacts

The Project PI is Maria Nijnik [5] (Maria.Nijnik@hutton.ac.uk [6]). Other staff involved are Simone Martino [7], Samuel Poskitt [8], Katy Joyce [9], and Sarah Pohlschneider of SEGS [10] and David Miller [11], and Margaret McKeen [12] and Chen Wang [13] of ICS [14].

Highlights

On 5-7 September 2022, Prof Maria Nijnik, PI of JHI-D5-1, participated in the IUFRO Conference on Managerial economics & accounting, held in Hamburg. It brought together 38 participants from 12 countries. Dr John A. Parrotta, President of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations [15](IUFRO), in his welcome speech, pointed out a central role of Natural Capital (NC) Valuation and Accounting as a tool to ensure that the values and services are sustainably provided by ecosystems. 

At this IUFRO Conference, the PI of JHI-D5-1 explained how Valuation of NC can help transform land-use planning and decision-making, tackle potential conflicts linked to demands on ecosystem services and guide the prevention of damages and losses. The conference concluded that environmental awareness and perceived threats to NC are increasing and refinement of valuation methods, according to new environmental and social conditions, is needed. The event promoted a dialogue between researchers, policymakers, citizens, and practitioners engaged in forestry and related fields under the bio-economy paradigm and the rural, environmental and climate policy and research agendas. The Conference has been widely promoted, e.g., at https://iufro2022-div405.thuenen.de/ [16], with the Conference Proceedings made available, and on Twitter, Linkedin, etc.

The knowledge shared was complemented by the knowledge derived from our H2020 projects of SHERPA https://lnkd.in/dinUkV9b [17], FirEUrisk https://fireurisk.eu/ [18] and SIMRA http://www.simra-h2020.eu/ [19] supported by the European Commission. The Horizon Europe proposal RURACTIVE (Empowering rural commuities to act for change) was successful either and will start in September 2023.

Our activities and outputs have already been applied, including by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations - IUFRO [20]. JHI-D5-1 team submitted the session proposal on Natural Capital Valuation (T5.2) and co-led the submission of the proposal (T4.19) on Institutional & Social Innovation. Both our sessions were accepted for a the I [21]UFRO World Congress 2024 [21] to be held on June 23-29, 2024, in Stohcolm. Information on Congress sessions is availble in IUFRO_2024-List_of_Sessions.pdf (iufro2024.com) [22]. More than 30 abstracts were received for each of our sessions. We co-led the reviewing process, and the sessions have been designed (technical sessions - of 120 min each plus two poster sessions on each of the topics). The preparation for the Congress is ongoing.

On the outcomes of the IUFRO sessions (but not only), a special journal issue of Forests (Open Acess, IF=3.3) https://www.mdpi.com/journal/forests/special_issues/CF003M0137 [23] will be produced. Manuscripts are welcome.

    
     

We trust that our research is policy relevant & helps people (e.g. local communities) to more sustainably manage & use of their land, including forests. We have also contributed to the European Forest Institute [24]; Mountain & Carpathian About (carpathianscience.org) [25]; ESP Europe 2022 - Home (espconference.org) [26] knowledge sharing & networking initiatives, and this talk was given at the International Conference held by UQAR/ GRIDEQ in Quebec, Canada Maria Nijnik - Can Social Innovation offer Transformative Opportunities to Marginalised Rural Areas? - YouTube [27]

On May 19 2023, Simone Martino [28], Sam Poskitt [29], Katy Joyce et al held a workshop with a variety of policy and decision makers to explore their perceptions of naturalcapital [30] valuation [31] in the Scottish [32] forestry context and the risks posed by climate change [33] to the NC of woodlands. We trust that its findings will add to advancing the knowledge of the value of forest [34] ecosystems [35] and filling existing knowledge gaps in NC valuation. Next steps include the formulation of social-ecological scenarios [36] to explore the effects of various drivers (especially of climate [37] change) on forest values and potential human responses.