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Anti-environmentalists and apathists often ask why bother to conserve nature – what does it do for us? Cue enthusiastic green arm-waving and heavy sighs from environmental scientists and ecologists who have faced this attitude their entire careers.
Nature is undeniably important for the human race – we wouldn’t be here without plants fixing the sun’s energy into carbohydrates and producing oxygen as a by-product, we wouldn’t be able to grow any food to eat without the myriad of organisms which create and maintain the soil, and exposure to nature has numerous psychological and physical benefits for our health. And yet, it is not valued in political decision-making. The environment, particularly the living biological part of it, is a “cross-cutting” issue which means it’s ignored by most government departments, including those that should be valuing it the most (e.g. Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government; Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine; Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources). This is because most decision-making is driving by economics.
International momentum has been building for governments, businesses and organisations to begin valuing nature. This doesn’t just mean putting a price on nature – it’s not all about price-tags – but valuing natural capital in the same way that any other capital (financial, human, built etc.) would be valued. And accounting for this capital in decision-making processes at all levels (from individuals up to government policy).
Some countries and individual corporations have made good progress with this (e.g. the UK has a Natural Capital Committee, Coca-Cola and Puma have famously adopted Natural Capital Accounting systems), but there has been little progress in Ireland, until now.
In April, the first Natural Capital Ireland Conference was held, which brought together academics, government representatives from national and local levels, government organisations, NGOs, business and finance and other stakeholders. The point of the meeting was to try and increase understanding of valuing nature nationally, and progress natural capital accounting at all levels.
The report from this conference is now available on the Natural Capital Ireland website (www.naturalcapitalireland.com) and will be launched at the EPA Environment Ireland conference. In addition, the EPA and NPWS have been working with the conference organising committee to create a national Natural Capital Forum.
Whether this will bump the natural environment up the political agenda, and increase people’s interest and enthusiasm for nature remains to be seen… But we need to keep trying to convince people that nature is important, and that not having it is more expensive and economically damaging.
Author: Jane Stout, stoutj[at]tcd.ie